JuJu Smith-Schuster hangs up his dancing shoes

[Steely McBeam]

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There will be no more on-field dancing for Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Smith-Schuster earned the ire of opposing players in the last two weeks for making social media videos of himself dancing on the midfield logos of opposing teams before games. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that he didn’t think the dancing was a “legitimate” motivating factor for opposing teams, but that he would speak to Smith-Schuster about it because it was a matter of respect.

On Wednesday, Smith-Schuster told reporters that he will discontinue the dancing. He said he didn’t feel it was disrespectful, but that it has become a distraction for the team and he will stop doing it as a result.

“For the betterment of myself and my teammates, I’m going to stop dancing on the logos,” Smith-Schuster said, via Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Anyone who has watched the last three Steelers games knows that the reasons for their losing streak extend way beyond anything that goes on long before kickoff, but, as Smith-Schuster noted, it had become something for the team to deal with at a moment when their focus needs to be on fixing what’s wrong once the game gets underway.