KP8 Denies Rumor That He Refused to Back Up Mason Rudolph on Sunday
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room is starting off the New Year with some FIRE.
On Tuesday, January 2nd, 2024, Kenny Pickett and Pat Freiermuth spoke with the media heading into Ravens week. Kenny Pickett made headlines, ripping certain members of the Pittsburgh sports media apart after Mark Madden sparked rumors that KP8 refused to back up Mason Rudolph in the Steelers’ week 17 win against the Seattle Seahawks.
Usually cool, calm, and collected, a visibility irritated Kenny Pickett jumped right into his soliloquy before fielding any questions: “I saw reports out there that I feel were attacking, ya know, my character and how I am as a person; not even getting into a player standpoint of it.”
He explained: “There was no talk of me being a backup quarterback this week in terms of being a two. If I was healthy enough to play…I was going to start and play. If they believed that I was not, which they believed I was not, I was not going to dress and suit up for the game.”
Without being in the locker room, it’s hard to know for sure what’s real and what isn’t in terms of these reports. Everyone claims to have their sources, but the only ones that will ever truly know what happened with that are Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, and the coaching staff.
For the sake of being transparent, I'll say this: I’m a known Kenny Pickett apologist. I don’t want to see his time in Pittsburgh end just yet. I see a franchise quarterback in the kid, as long as his development is no longer hindered by terrible play-calling and unnecessary drama. With that being said, Mason Rudolph gives us the best chance to win right now, and we should definitely ride his hand while it’s still hot. At the end of the day, I’m a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I understand that the names on the jerseys will always be interchangeable. I wish more of yinz understood that, because it seems like there’s a ton of discord amongst Steeler fans as it pertains to this topic.
Still, given all the drama and injuries we’ve endured this football season, we are entering the last week of the regular season with a shot at the playoffs, which is more than most of the sports media was giving us at the beginning of the year.
Here. We. Go.
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