Pittsburgh Steelers guard Ramon Foster is asking his ex-teammates to stop the criticism of current Steelers players.
The Steelers went through a tumultuous 2018 season with the holdout of running back Le’Veon Bell and growing tensions between quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and All-Pro wideout Antonio Brown.
And even with Bell and Brown gone from Pittsburgh, dissension has continued, with Brown and other former players sharing their criticism of the team on social media. Roethlisberger and wideout Juju Smith-Schuster have been among the targets.
The latest social-media salvo was fired early Thursday morning by former Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall, who called Roethlisberger a racist in a series of tweets. Mendenhall, who played for Pittsburgh from 2008-12, was addressing accusations that Brown quit on the team when he did not play in the season finale.
“Alright, I’ll end the mystery … B’s racist and @AB84’s black. He had to catch balls from a racist quarterback. Every honest player knows it, it’s not a big deal. He was just supposed to take his lickings and move on, like a slave for real,” Mendenhall tweeted.
Foster, apparently, has had enough.
“Moving forward…any former player or affiliate of the Steelers who has an issue with anyone still in the locker room, please contact me or Maurkice Pouncey or anyone else you feel you can talk to,” Foster wrote on Twitter. “Whoever you have an issue with, we will get you their number so you can address them. I PROMISE. These media takes might give y’all good traffic on your social media outlets but the guys still in that locker room, who y’all still know personally have to answer for those comments. Call them what you want, but call them personally and tell THEM. Defend who you want to defend but you don’t have to mention the team at all.
“Whether you have a ring or played for one year…ENOUGH…CHILL. Most players at one point in their life want to take their kids back to the place where they once played, don’t burn too many bridges.”
Foster and Pouncey are longtime Steelers, with a combined 18 seasons on the offensive line in Pittsburgh.
