Black and Gold Links: The dysfunction within the ‘Killer B’s’ goes far beyond superficial squabbling

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Time to check on the latest news surrounding the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ season is over, but if you think the news surrounding the black-and-gold is over — think again. For the drama-filled Steelers, things are just heating up, and this is where the daily links article comes in. You might have missed some key news, and we fill you in and give you the latest, and sometimes greatest, news surrounding the Steelers.

Today in the Black-and-gold links article we take a look at how the rift between one of the most talented offenses not to win a Super Bowl was far worse than meets the eye.

Let’s get to the news:

• Everyone was always so proud of the ‘Killer B’s’, which made their demise even more painful. So what exactly went wrong?

What’s behind the Steelers’ breakup of Roethlisberger, Brown and Bell?

By: Howard Bryant, ESPN

But maybe the wounds aren’t so self-inflicted after all, for revolutions often occur in the places where stability is mistaken for peace. The problem is the Steelers themselves. Over the past 20 years, the three teams best known for being financially penurious have been the Eagles, the Patriots and the Steelers. This reality is set against the larger backdrop: Football players are exploited. Their bodies are disposable by the facts of the profession, the overwhelming financial advantages of the front offices and the locker room machismo culture the players perpetrate, even as it destroys their leverage. (Next Man Up, and commence eye roll.)

By not paying players, the Steelers are one of the teams that have been ripest for a player revolt. During Bell’s holdout, which lasted the entire 2018 season, Wallace went on social media and referred to his own desire to earn his financial value within the short window of an NFL career. However, this is not just a financial conflict but a racial/political/class one, for the Steelers over the past few years have been both cheap and condescending. The team’s general manager, Kevin Colbert, essentially said this offseason that QB Ben Roethlisberger was the only adult in the room. “He has 52 kids in the room under him, quite honestly,” Colbert said. It was a comment that revealed the underlying fractures that exist in a football locker room, where black players are expected to perform without complaint, to be grateful for being “rescued” from the ghetto, and are spoken to with an insulting paternalism. Colbert spoke of Roethlisberger, who is now 37, as bigger than his entire team. “If our players were smart,” Colbert said, “they’d listen to him because he’s been there, he’s done it.”

To read the full article, click HERE

• Alejandro Villanueva has done a lot in his young life, and now he can scratch “commencement speaker” off the list.

Steelers’ Alejandro Villanueva to be Saint Vincent commencement speaker

By: Joe Napsha

It’s not many colleges that have a decorated war hero and a professional athlete as the principal commencement speaker, but Saint Vincent College has found one person who can lay claim to being both — former Army Ranger Alejandro Villanueva, who is an offensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The college on Friday announced that Villanueva, a decorated Army Ranger, a National Football League Pro Bowler and noted humanitarian, will speak at commencement on May 11 at the Robert S. Carey Student Center on campus.

To read the full article, click HERE

• Although not many are talking about him potentially going to the Steelers, Antonio Brown’s cousin, Marquise Brown, got some good news regarding his injured foot recently.

Marquise Brown gets a positive review for his injured foot

By: Mike Florio, ProFootballTalk

Former Oklahoma receiver Marquise Brown was among the players to undergo a medical re-check in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Brown received good news.

According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, Brown “received a very positive review” on a foot that he injured late in the year.

Brown, who injured the foot in the Big 12 championship game, has been out of a boot for weeks, per Rapoport. Brown didn’t participate in the Scouting Combine and engaged in no pre-draft workouts.

To read the full article, click HERE

• When people talk about their road to the NFL, not many could beat the crazy road Chukwuma Okorafor has taken to get him to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Okorafor is beating the odds

By: Teresa Varley, Steelers.com

What an amazing journey it’s been for the young Steelers offensive lineman.

Okorafor was born in Nigeria, and was raised for part of his life in Botswana, where the main sport was soccer. That’s all he knew. That’s all he watched. That’s all he played.

His family immigrated to the United States in 2010, settling in the Detroit area. It was a chance for a better life for them, a better job for his father, and a shot at the American Dream.

What he had to adjust to most, was a different sport. People were encouraging him to play football. It was a sport all the kids played, one that brought people together with a common love. And his first introduction to it, was watching the Steelers play the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.

To read the full article, click HERE

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