Madden Tuesday: Steelers leadership, or lack thereof, on display through Devin Bush's Twitter ramblings
Jul. 6—To the best of my knowledge, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Devin Bush didn't go on a midnight treadmill rant. Nor did he dye his mustache blonde.
Come to think of it, does he have a mustache? Maybe he could dye that ponytail of his blonde instead if he still has it.
Regardless, Bush isn't quite at Antonio Brown levels of social media lunacy. But he's getting close. Among other things, the third-year player spent this past week retweeting a horrific video of a cat falling multiple floors to its near demise, questioning the meaning of marriage and the need for divorce, and discussing his fear of God more than death.
Oh, and he wants another puppy and a mani-pedi. It was basically a weekend-long Tweet-storm.
All this after Bush ripped people for spending too much time on other social media platforms, such as TikTok.
Given that TikTok is the favorite pastime of teammates JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool, I'm sure that opinion went over big within his own locker room.
I'm not the only one who had that reaction. Just ask Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt. Gee, it's almost as if Watt has an inside source who knows what the Steelers locker room is really like or something.
In this week's "Madden Monday" podcast — delayed until Tuesday due to the holiday weekend — Mark Madden of 105.9 The X and TribLIVE says Bush's latest headline-grabbing social media activity should come as no surprise at this point.
"The Steelers are a bunch of clown shoes," Madden said. "I've never felt more disconnected with a team. It's a team and a logo I used to revere. Now the less I have to deal with it, the better."
The news about Bush falls on the same day that former Steeler Le'Veon Bell found himself in his latest social media kerfuffle.
"These guys are losers," Madden continued. "They are millionaire losers. They are living proof that no matter how much money you have, or how much football talent you may possess, if you are a loser deep inside like Le'Veon Bell is, like Devin Bush is, like A.B. Jr. (Smith-Schuster) and A.B. Jr. Jr. (Claypool) are, your propensity to be a loser will eventually come out."
Madden lays some of the blame at the feet of head coach Mike Tomlin and the team's veteran leaders.
"I just can't believe that Tomlin or a leader on the team didn't call him and just say stop it," Madden said. "But that's how the Steelers are. Coach laissez-faire. No leadership. They all just want the cool kids to like them."
Also on the podcast, Madden and I discuss the latest ups and downs of the Pirates. The odd comments of the Tampa Bay mayor before Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final (which the Lightning eventually lost). And a review of the new "Purge" movie.
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Listen: Tim Benz and Mark Madden discuss the lack of leadership in the Steelers' locker room
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
