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The level of resentment toward suspended Steelers’ players over the last few years is palpable. Fans, as well as the league, wants to see star players on the field, performing to a high level. Le’Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant weren’t fully able to do that last season due to violations of the league’s substance abuse policy.
Rules are rules. Break them, and you won’t play. But the league’s current policy allows for three violations for marijuana before a suspension is incurred. Failed tests — the heart of the scheduled suspension for Bell (four games) and the unappealed suspension of Bryant (one year) — enter into that as well. Fans clearly take a back seat to the teammates of suspended players in terms of effect.
They just don’t necessarily get to speak publicly on the topic.
David DeCastro is entering the fifth year of his career, one that has seen the right guard improve noticeably each season. He was named All Pro for the first time and was selected to his first Pro Bowl. A contract extension can’t be far off, as he plays under the team-controlled fifth-year option given to first-round draft picks from 2011 to the present.
Accolades like that naturally bring with it at least the semblance of leadership responsibilities. A response, like the one paraphrased by Mike Prisuta, suggests DeCastro views the situation from a pragmatic standpoint.
There isn’t anything DeCastro, or anyone else, really, can do about it. But DeCastro can, at the very least, show it is something the team recognizes and will express the same kind of resentment toward the matter as fans will.
It is tough. It is frustrating. And everyone has seen this before. The start of training camp last year had Bell facing a three-game suspension for a DUI and marijuana possession arrest in August of 2014. Bryant would be suspended after training camp for the first four games of the year. Bell’s suspension was reduced to two games.
Bell is appealing now, and seems convinced he won’t miss a game, pending the results of that appeal. These are questions the Steelers’ leaders and rookies alike have to continue answering.
DeCastro responded well enough for any coach and general manager to approve of his message.
