Steelers Pre-Game Trash Talk Was Kept Under Wraps By 1 Savvy Former Player According To Arthur Moats

Pittsburgh Steelers former linebacker Arthur Moats was critical of the Cincinnati Bengals trash-talking during the week leading up to the AFC Championship game. He talked about it on his podcast, The Arthur Moats Experience, and told his co-host Deke that when he was in the league this was something the veteran players talked about avoiding. 

Steelers' Moats Thinks The Bengals Blew It

The Bengals played the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game, the Bengals had beaten the Chiefs in their three previous meetings in very tight games. That led to many of the Bengals players and fans trash-talking KC prior to the game. This included calling Arrowhead Stadium, "Burrowhead" after Cincy's QB Joe Burrow. 

Former Steeler, Mike Hilton was caught on film saying this after the divisional game. It went so far that Cincinnati's mayor trolled Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes saying Burrow needs to take a paternity test to see if he is Mahomes' father. 

It didn't stop there, it seemed like someone from the Bengals was throwing shade every day leading up to the game. Moats feels that this is a part of competitive gameplay but also feels that it can go too far and possibly motivates the other team. He thinks that it is at least in part what happened here. He also said that when he was on the Steelers a former veteran teammate warned the younger players against talking too much. 

That former teammate was guard Ramon Foster, the "Big Ragu." He played 11 seasons for the Steelers and during his time with the team, he was a leader and helped to guide younger players in navigating the nuances of off-field antics. 

"Shout out to Ramon Foster, it's like going against Brady, you don't say certain things. They don't need any added incentive. The thing that Ramon Foster would always say to us was, 'yo don't be out here selling wolf tickets and talking about stuff when we gonna be the one that has to defend y'all."

Moats pointed out that it is generally not the best players on a team that are the ones engaging in trash talk prior to a game.

"I mean when you're Eli Apple, you not holding it to the same level of a Joe Burrow, that put a lot more pressure on all of us. All of us around here gotta pick up the slack, you know it's one of them things like, man come on bro, shut the heck up, unless you on that type of level."

Moats did give some credit to the Mayor of Cincinnati. He puts him in a different category than players and doesn't hold him to the same standard since he isn't on the field. 

"I will say this though, I don't think this guy has to apologize at all, even though his take, his video didn't age well. I thought that it was epic, it was incredible because it was actually funny. It was actually unique. It's clever because it's coming from a mayor, it's like you don't even expect that but that's what made it dope."

He added that it is part of what makes the game great. It helps to build up anticipation and excitement.  

"I do feel like that's what made this game as good as it was. When you talk about the stakes being what they were. But as a whole we all felt that energy and we all knew that either one side was going to be like 'yo this is legit Burrowhead four times in a row, he's the guy.' Or it was gonna be 'yo this dude over here (Mahomes), you don't play with him, he's special and you don't play with him, he's special and this is what he's capable of doing.'"  

These kinds of games, with stakes as high as these and teams chirping from one side to another. Moats added that this kind of talk and these types of games are causing a rivalry to develop between Cincy and KC. 

One thing is for sure, we can expect a lot of great games out of these two amazing young QBs and their teams in the future. Hopefully, we find the Steelers and Kenny Pickett in the mix sooner rather than later.  

What do you think about the Bengals talking trash before the game? Do you think it motivates the other team? How long until the Steelers are able to get in on the action?

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