George Pickens explains the social media story and says it has nothing to do with the Steelers

We’re in the next phase of “cleansing all references to a team on social media” with Pittsburgh Steelers receiver George Pickens: The awkward excuses no one believes.

A day after last week’s win over the Tennessee Titans, in which Pickens received -2 ​​receiving yards, Pickens removed all references to the Steelers from Instagram and appeared to unfollow some teammates and coaches.

On Wednesday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin completely trashed Pickens’ apparent social media tantrum, and one has to wonder if anyone was trying to tell Pickens that being upset after a win isn’t the best look. Because on Thursday he awkwardly tried to explain what happened, saying it had nothing to do with him being upset about the lack of catches in the game.

Accordingly ESPN’s Brooke PryorWhen Pickens met with the media on Thursday, he said he only hid some Steelers posts on his IG because he was “deleting his page.”

“It has nothing to do with the Steelers at all,” Pickens said of Pryor.

OK. And on the issue of Pickens not looking too happy when teammate Diontae Johnson scored a go-ahead touchdown in the final minute, Pickens said he was just making his way back to the sideline. This is completely believable.

“His touchdown clinched the win, so I don’t know how I could be mad about that,” Pickens said.

Pickens was also asked if he was upset, and he gave an unconvincing “Oh, no.”

Pickens is a young player and he may have learned a lesson. Maybe he really was just cleaning up his Instagram, but doing that after he had negative yards in a prime-time game is going to get attention. Maybe he had just returned to the sideline when his teammate caught a great touchdown, but he might want to celebrate next time just to be sure.

No matter what really happened, it’s probably safe to say it won’t happen again.