Deshea Townsend: Ben Did The Right Thing Calling Out Martavis Bryant
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan) – Former Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend joined "The Fan Morning Show" on Wednesday to look ahead to Saturday's playoff game against the Bengals. The game will happen almost exactly a decade after the teams' last postseason matchup, which Townsend was a part of.
Townsend said he sees a striking similarity between the Super Bowl XL championship team that he was a part of ten years ago and this year's Steelers squad.
"This game is all about who gets hot at the right time," Townsend said. "I do feel like, what the Steelers are doing now, they're getting hot at the right time. So, it kind of has that eerie feeling of how we did with the run in Cincinnati, then having to go to Denver on the road, it has that same type of feeling going into the playoffs this year."
The Steelers-Bengals rivalry has grown fiercer over time, and trash talk has become a huge part of it. Townsend remembers some of the same stuff happening during his playing days, and thinks that there's a place for trash talk- as long as you're backing it up.
"The only way you stop the trash talking is to shut someone down," Townsend said. "And if they're making plays on you, it gives them the right to trash talk. As long as you keep it within the rules of the game and you have fun with it, and it makes you compete even harder, that's a part of it, but the only way you stop someone from sending ketchup and mustard to your locker room like [Chad] Ochocinco wanted to do against us, is to not let them score. Things like that, you have to go out and let the actions take care of it more than the trash talk."
Speaking of harsh comments, Townsend also shared his thoughts on Ben Roethlisberger calling out Martavis Bryant during his appearance on 93-7 The Fan on Tuesday.
"When your leader calls you out, you have to stand up, especially if you're a young guy," Townsend said. "A lot of times when you're young, you don't see the importance of how important it is to play in the playoffs. You think, you're young, you'll get a chance to go there every year. But, an older guy like Ben- who's the leader of the offense, of the team- when he says something, young guys need to step up, especially at this moment. Because you never know when your opportunity is going to come to get back, and you've got to make the most of it. And if that's what's going to push his buttons, that has to be what it is...when they're young, sometimes they need their buttons pushed in different ways."
Townsend thinks that Roethlisberger did the right thing.
"That was a great call by him," Townsend said. "Because he's going to need him on Saturday...you know where all the coverage is rolling to, so the guy opposite of Antonio [Brown] is going to have to have a big day, so that was a good call by Ben, calling the young fella out."
The interview can be heard here:
