When the Steelers announced that every player and coach would wear the name of Antwon Rose this season, they said that “Steelers players and coaches united as one” to make that decision. That does not appear to be the case when Minkah Fotzpatrick spoke out about the decision.
“It was mostly made from people upstairs and everything else like that,” Fitzpatrick said, via ESPN. “Don’t know exactly who. Don’t know exactly how. But we did. We knew that we were going to have somebody on the back of our helmets, and it wasn’t exactly clear on what it was going to be. It was mostly made by everyone upstairs.”
The decision to honor Rose was revealed in Week One, but as we know now, Steelers offensive lineman Alejandro Villanueva didn’t participate, instead wearing the name of Iraq War hero Alwyn Cashe.
Steelers offensive lineman Maurkice Pouncey revealed that he regretted going along with the decision to honor Rose without doing more research on what exactly happened when the teen got shot and killed by a cop.
The 17-year-old was fingered as a the gunman in a drive-by shooting shortly after he would be would shot in the back and killed by a white police officer after running away when the car he was riding in.
It remains unclear if the team will continue to honor Rose going forward.
