Tuitt Retires

This is the silliest argument I can remember reading, taking part in on this board. Are we honestly debating whether or not fans are important to the NFL? It's hilarious.

FANS DO NOT MAKE UP A SMALL PORTION OF NFL REVENUE. THEY MAKE UP 100% OF IT

That Nike Swoosh you are talking about would not be on the side of any jerseys without millions of fans watching at home. If there were no fans, Nike would choose other avenues to promote their brand. If fans did not watch the NFL, there would be no NFL on TV, there would be no TV deals. The NFL wouldn't be able to sell a single advertisement if no one was watching their product. Every single revenue source you guys can point out can be directly attributed to the NFL's vast fan base.

 

It sure looks to me like Tuitt took the Steelers right up to the deadline. Personally I'd say that timing sucks.

 

Aaron Donald is currently mulling retirement as a negotiating tactic to get more money is that more or less acceptable than Tuitt deciding that he wanted life without football?

 

More. I can respect a man using his ability to retire comfortably as a negotiating tactic. That is not what Tuitt did.

Tuitt sat out an entire season while getting paid, and then followed that up by keeping the Steelers wondering the whole way up until June 1st of the following year.

Lost in all of this, is that Stephon Tuitt should be very thankful to have been a Pittsburgh Steeler. I cannot think of many other organizations that would have been so supportive, and so lenient with Tuitt.

 

Im beginning to get a clearer picture here. So he is injured and sits out getting paid, that is acceptable and if he decided after rehab that playing again isn't in the cards and decides to retire that is acceptable. However when your brother is brutally cut down in the prime of his life and you have an injury that forces you to sit out a few games and not feel like returning to playing well then he needs to thank his lucky stars that the Steelers are a organization that cares. Is that the gist of it? what about if he didnt get paid?

 

And you know this how

 

Did the Rams pay Donald his full salary as he sat out all of last season?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Tuitt deciding he didn't want to come back. There is a lot wrong with it if he failed to give the team a timely decision after the way they supported him last season. We don't really know what he told them. It sure as hell seemed like he had teammates believing he was coming back right up until the moment he announced his retirement. Did Cam Heyward deserve better?

I understand he was going through a lot and I cannot imagine losing a brother that way, but he had over a year to get enough of a handle on things to at least make a decision. Maybe he did. Maybe he told the Steelers months ago and they made the decision with him to wait until June 1. Or maybe he took advantage of their generosity. I doubt we will ever really know.

 

No.... I do not think a grown man should be able to sit out an entire NFL season and get paid over "feelings". If this makes me a bad person, so be it.

As for Tuitt thanking his lucky stars to be a Steeler, how do you think this situation would have played out if Tuitt was a Brown?

 

How does anybody on here know anything? It's all speculation and educated guesses.

 

Exactly

 

It's a game???? The last time I checked Tuitt wasn't playing flag football at some park. Tuitt was a professional athlete getting paid to play a professional sport. But this is 2022, and stuff like obligation to perform the service for which you were paid to do no longer matters.

I agree wholeheartedly with your last sentence.

 

It’s a terrible situation and everyone acts differently when disaster hits. Tuitt quit and ran away even after grieving for an entire year there is nothing honorable about that IMO.

 

There is a middle ground between dismissing Tuitt's feelings entirely and expecting him to at least make a decision in a time frame that doesn't screw the team that paid him $8 million to sit out a season.

 

I personally don't think it was His timing. I think it was His deadline.....given by the Steelers. I believe they said ....Ok...... We like You, but We must know by....

 

Sometimes it's all too easy to dismiss the way someone handles a trying time with the thought process "well I've been through worse and I didn't have millions to fall back on." This can make someones take cold and emotionless and I get that. However, there is a legitimacy to this thought process. I may not ever understand what Tuitt is going through emotionally but he will never understand what I or any of you have dealt with in our lives. Being a world class athlete doesn't make you any more or less of a human. It is absolutely within his right to handle things the way he has and it is within our right to have a negative opinion about it. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.

 

If that is true, I can't really complain about his decision. Sure, it sucks that he isn't going to play, but if he needs to be done, I respect that. My only issue is if he really did take until June 1 to make his decision. Sorry, but that's just crap.

 

Maybe he just realized he would never win another playoff game again under MT and saw no point coming back. That I could understand.

 

Either way....We really don't know what went down in office, but I personally will miss Him playing because He was legitimately really good.
It's over, and done with.....So.....I wish Him well, and Whomever takes His spot .......I hope is even better. Go Freaking Steelers.

 

I agree with this. The thing that gets me is, during this process, Tuitt not only went back to Notre Dame and got his degree, but he also sold his house in Pittsburgh. It sure looks to me like Tuitt had been setting himself up to retire for a while now. Why keep the Steelers on the hook up until the last second?

 

Maybe(I don't know this) He did want 2 comeback, but when push came 2 shove He was like F**k it. Maybe His Mother is really Hurting, and She wants Him around more....Hell ....I don't know, but it's over for Him, and Us(Steelers fans) now....So let's hope they got someone, or get someone 2 fill the void.
Hell I was angry as a Steelers fan when I first heard it....He was My favorite DL, but like I said it's over, and done with now....So...la vita deve andare avanti(life must go on)

 

Could also be he was dealing with his own mortality. Life is short. Maybe his loss made him question whether or not he wanted to play football anymore. I mean these guys do take a horrendous beating week after week.

I have no ill will towards Tuitt. I think in the beginning everyone was supportive of Tuitt taking the time he needed. It's just that we all had a different threshold of exactly how much time that should have been.

 

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So then is getting upset about it a useful thing? The timing keeps being brought up but this happened last season too, the eve before camp is due to start Vince Williams retires and the first half of the season the uncertainty at ILB is one glaring problem. What type of different moves are people seeing made by the front office if they know Tuitt isn't coming back? Who was available at pick 20 in the draft at DE or converted DT? If not in the draft who was available in FA with lets be generous here 7 million extra in cap room? What FA would best fit the Steelers in that situation? Seems to me a lot of people are getting upset because of what was potentially possible instead of what is most likely given the situation.

It may be that Tuitt wanted to have a fall back if he tried to complete his degree and it was tougher than he thought, he could always fall back on playing but wanted to see if life without football was possible or if it seemed more important after his brother's death.

 

This is a very valid point. As I just stated it maybe he wanted to have a safety net for if going back to school and the real world was tougher than he thought. Kinda like if all else fails at least I can play football. Once he proved top himself that he had value outside of that he could commit to retiring