Mike Tomlin didn’t start off his weekly news conference by immediately addressing “the elephant in the room” like he’s done before, but it didn’t take long for the Steelers’ head coach to get around to Martavis Bryant — three minutes to be exact.
And by the look on his face, Tomlin wasn’t a happy man, and his words backed that up.
Instead of brushing off Bryant’s social media posts following Sunday’s 29-14 win over the Bengals (Bryant claimed, in part, he was better than teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster) like he did the week when reports surfaced that Bryant was unhappy with his playing time and wanted traded, Tomlin wasn’t playing those games anymore on Tuesday with the twice suspended receiver.
“He was out of bounds with some of his actions in terms of the things he said on social media,” Tomlin said. “It will be dealt with appropriately so. That ball is in my court and I haven’t visited with him yet. He’s worked diligently and I liked his approach but he said some things when he’s not around us that are somewhat of a distraction. I say somewhat because we have to field questions about it, not because it’s high on my damn agenda.”
Bryant doubled down on his unhappiness with his role with the team on Monday to ESPN. Bryant said that he has a personal deadline of Oct. 31 (the trade deadline) for things to get better.
“Then so be it, I’m not going to re-sign,” Bryant said. “I have this year and next year. I’ll just play next year out. I’m not tripping.”
Tomlin said that Bryant isn’t on the trading block.
Bryant hasn’t met with Tomlin — or anybody else associated with the organization — since his outburst on Sunday mostly because Bryant called off sick on Monday. The two are expected to meet on Wednesday when the Steelers return to practice in preparation for Sunday night’s game in Detroit.
It sounded like Tomlin is strongly considering disciplining Bryant is some way.
“I’ll visit him at some point and when I do, I will rain down my judgment and we will move forward,” Tomlin said.
But what kind of punishment could be in order for Bryant, if any?
Actually, it’s a tricky situation that very well can limit Tomlin’s options.
Article 42 of the collective bargaining agreement allows teams to fine a player for up to one week’s salary or to suspend him up to four weeks, without pay, for detrimental conduct. The conduct detrimental to the team clause has a very broad definition in which it’s basically left up to the team.
The issue is that what Bryant did — make a social media post and say that he wanted traded or he won’t re-sign with the team — may not be considered conduct detrimental to the team when it comes to the Steelers, but it may be to others.
