Pittsburgh Steelers' George Pickens Blasts Cleveland Browns Cornerback In Now Deleted Post

The Pittsburgh Steelers know how effective the right kind of bulletin board material can be for psyching a team up for a big game. Bill Cowher famously showed the team a video following a 2005 regular season loss of Cincinnati Bengals players wiping their feet on the Terrible Towel ahead of their playoff matchup; the Steelers won. Joey Porter and TE, Jerramy Stevens going back and forth during Media Week leading up to Super Bowl XL was not exactly loved by Cowher, but it had the same effect; the Steelers won their 5th Super Bowl.

It seems like 2nd-year WR, George Pickens, is living up to those same standards by establishing his own kind of bulletin board inspiration. This time, though, the arena was not a video in a locker room, or a sacred Towel being mocked; this time the battleground was on Instagram.

Steelers Showing Fight 

Trash talk is not only expected, when you consider yourself the best, it is a calling card that you use to remind people where they stand in comparison to you. Every Steelers fan who watched Pickens' 2022 debut season left with two pieces of knowledge; Pickens was woefully underutilized (though having a tone-deaf OC may have played into that), and that Pickens has fire in his veins. From the passion he brought to every play to the "outbursts" on the sideline when he knew how underused he was, Pickens showed that not only does he have the talent, he has the flamethrower-like willpower to outwork, outplay, and eventually outperform whoever is in front of him.

Knowing all that about Pickens, it becomes a much clearer picture of how the back-and-forth played itself out between Pickens and Cleveland Browns defensive back, Martin Emerson Jr. Around 7 pm on Saturday, Emerson Jr. posted a series of pictures to his account, and from the first bunch of photos, it seemed like a usual, harmless selfie-dump - until the final picture.

(go to Instagram and scroll to the last picture in the roll to see the photo being referenced by Pickens)

There are many ways one could describe the picture that Emerson Jr. shared - of him looming over a sitting George Pickens during 2022 - but none of those would be amicable or what you could call love between players. Emerson Jr. knew he was calling out Pickens, and did so in a very public forum. Considering these two players were rookies in 2022, their introduction to a nasty, heated Browns-Steelers rivalry has obviously rubbed off on them. 

Pickens didn't waste much time, in not only noticing that he had been called out, but also making sure he had his say as well. Taking to Instagram, the same field of battle that Emerson Jr. chose to start all this off, Pickens made sure that he didn't call out his opponent as he had been - this needed to be one-upped. Less than an hour after Emerson Jr.'s initial post, Pickens responded with several direct pictures and finished up by stating, quite plainly, that it was because Emerson Jr. had come first.

In a series of now-deleted posts, Pickens doesn't only show the moments where he won his matchups against Emerson Jr., but he also tagged him directly - something that Emerson had failed to do in his original post. Now, what does it mean when a player posts and then deletes? Could be a text from Tomlin asking to calm it down, or perhaps just not wanting to make a private beef public. Whatever the reason, when 2023 begins all eyes are going to be on the two games where Emerson Jr. and Pickens get to prove whose Instagram post was right!

Life in the world of Instagram trash-talking moves fast, but all the words, pictures, videos, and hype will come down to one man against another on the football field. When it comes to that, I feel comfortable knowing we've got Pickens in our corner.