I don't think he gets a free pass, but if you don't see the difference of the attitude between the two, then you might be suffering from an inability to perceive.
MW: Whined and whined about wanting a new deal, even though he was under contract. Didn't show up for any of the camps or pre-season. Made comments showing a non-team attitude. When he finally did show, he played obviously with less than full effort and I mean OBVIOUSLY. Dropped endless balls, didn't hustle ever, and didn't bother to touch Dallas CB for the game-losing int. Just didn't bother.
AB: Never breathed a word about demanding a new contract. Showed up for all team camps. Took what is considered to be a pretty fair deal with new contract, seen hustling every time the ball was thrown to him ACCEPT the one play where he inexplicably didn't fall on the ball in the end zone vs. SD. Had some drops, but, from the common sense eye test, were not from lacking focus or effort. Even though not a stellar season, the cause was NOT from lack of effort. HUGE difference between that and MW. GIANT, COLOSSAL difference.
That is true.
However, the Steelers have set the bar for where they value WRs financially with Brown's contract. I believe Wallace is worth more than Brown. This team's biggest problem is scoring points, not gaining yards, and until the last 4 weeks, Brown has never consistently been able to do that. Wallace has done that for 4 years now.
The Steelers dug their own hole on this one. Maybe Wallace wasn't worth what he wanted to them, but they also put a value on what a less impactful WR is worth to them, and now likely can't afford to pay Wallace at or above that level.
I agree. It doesn't make Wallace useless...but "not useless" isn't worth any more than what the Steelers offered him...
Look at Matt Forte...his contract year, he played balls out...despite the fact that he was hurt, he was still given an appropriate contract...Wallace should have done that...
I can understand the cold shoulder Mikes's getting here, he made some foolish decisions in dealing with the Steelers, however no one here can dispute he wassn't our best receiver the last three years. Yeah, he had a bad season this year but who didn't on that team except for Miller.
He lead the team in receptions every year and YPC average I think. He's doing what any other player would do except he went about it in the wrong way, and it hurt his relationship with the fans.
We have an OLB Woodley who had a terrible season, Ben the last quarter of the season and Brown considering his salary a sub par season. I mentioned these three, but there are others not just Mike.
If he can get a better contract with another team I'm not going to blame him, you would do the same thing, loyality went out the window years ago in the NFL its a business and fans need to realize that fact.
I'm not going to blame the Steelers either, I really think they wanted to sign him early on but he made a dumb move and the Steelers don't cave in for any player.
He's probably gone, so our offense just got weakened, there is no receiver on our roster who commands double coverage except Mike. Oh we can get by without him but we better get a run game going to make up for the difference or your looking at 8-8 seasons to be the norm.
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