
(Screenshot from @SNFonNBC on Twitter)
Before Sunday night's game against the Buffalo Bills, JuJu Smith-Schuster danced on the Bills' logo at the middle of the field and posted a video of him doing it on TikTok. Smith-Schuster has done this pregame act often this year for some reason, and players on the Bills took offense to it.
“I ain’t going to lie. Seeing them dancing on our logo pregame and seeing all that, that turns you up a little bit," Bills' strong safety Jordan Poyer said after the game about Smith-Schuster's pregame stunt via Matt Parrino of Syracuse.com. "It kind of gives you a little second itch to come out and play with some extra fire. We were hyped up on the sideline, we had a big win. And we were just having fun.”
Bills' quarterback Josh Allen also saw or heard about Smith-Schuster's antics and had a message for his teammates in the tunnel before the game: "Let them do all the talking and the f---ing dancing, we f---ing work.”
The Steelers ended up playing a poor game on both sides of the ball and lost to the Bills, 26-15. Smith-Schuster had a decent game, but it wasn't anything earth-shattering -- six receptions for 55 yards (9.2 average) and a touchdown.
In Week 9 against the Dallas Cowboys, Smith-Schuster before the game danced on the star and posted it on TikTok, which was also noticed by players for the Cowboys.
In the fourth quarter of that game, Smith-Schuster scored a 31-yard touchdown and ran toward the middle of the field with the ball in his hand, but Cowboys' defensive end Randy Gregory smacked it out of his hands. Gregory was called for a personal foul for the act.
The Cowboys had a feeling that Smith-Schuster was going to reenact Terrell Owens' infamous start celebration.
“Absolutely,” defensive tackle Antwaun Woods told Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I saw a video before the game that had him on the star. I knew that was something he might do. I was going to make sure he didn’t get there. We have zero-tolerance for that.”
It will be interesting to see if Tomlin or one of the captains on the Steelers tell Smith-Schuster to stop dancing on opponents' logos at the middle of the field. It's apparent that players from the other team are noticing it and using it for extra motivation. Regardless though, it's just not a good look for Smith-Schuster, especially when you're on the losing end.
Smith-Schuster is a big influencer on social media and his TikTok videos draw a lot of views, but trolling opposing teams before a game is not the brightest thing to do.
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