JuJu Smith-Schuster is a budding star in the NFL, both for his on-field production as wide receiver for the Steelers as well as his ever-growing presence on social media and with numerous sponsorship deals. Over the course of this season, Smith-Schuster has been posting TikToks of himself dancing on the midfield logo in pregame warmups, which, for anyone that knows how oddly seriously NFL teams take the sanctity of The Logo, has been made out to be a sign of disrespect.
Smith-Schuster has insisted its not and is just something he’s doing for his fans, but this past week, it all came to a head when the Steelers lost to the Bengals on Monday Night Football and Smith-Schuster’s pregame dancing became a hot topic of conversation. Smith-Schuster had one of many Steelers turnovers on the night, leading directly to a Bengals score when he fumbled after getting lit up by Bengals DB Vonn Bell, who seemed to relish the opportunity to give JuJu the business.
Afterward, his Steelers teammates were asked about the pregame TikToks and what they thought about it, and as it became a story that was impacting his teammates, it became clear to Smith-Schuster that it was time to put a stop to it.
Asked JuJu about the dancing and if things like Vonn Bell’s extra-hard hit on him made him reevaluate the decision to dance on the logo.
He said he’s going to stop for the betterment of the team.
Here’s the full answer: pic.twitter.com/ptyvwP4YpK
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) December 23, 2020
He says he’s not changing who he is and will continue doing his thing on TikTok, but just won’t be doing them in pregame at midfield anymore “for the betterment of myself and the team.” He notes he did it while they were undefeated and while they had some losses, but losing to the Bengals with Ryan Finley at quarterback will always lead to some serious self-reflection and contemplation of how you can change.
As is always the case in sports, what you do off the field only really matters to fans when things are going poorly on the field, and, as such, this was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back in terms of some backlash towards Smith-Schuster. He became the easy scapegoat for Pittsburgh’s swoon, as it’s much easier to say, “hey, his pregame dancing is angering the other team,” than it is to say, “hey, Ben Roethlisberger might not be very good.”