JuJu Smith-Schuster had the perfect reaction to Ryan Shazier walking
By Josh Hill
When Ryan Shazier walked across the NFL Draft stage, JuJu Smith-Schuster didn’t shed a tear — because he knows his teammate.
One of the most powerful images of NFL Draft weekend wasn’t a rookie holding up his first jersey or a celebration in the green room. It was Ryan Shazier walking out to announce the Pittsburgh Steelers first-round pick.
Shazier may never play a down of football again. After suffering a spinal chord injury near the end of last season, it was unclear if he’d even be able to walk again. He had been seen at Steelers home games after his injury but there was never any word on the progress of his recovery. For months on end, fans from all corners of the NFL rallied around him, hoping for the best.
That’s what made Thursday night so cathartic. Stripping away politics, Shazier walking out onto the stage in Dallas was a triumph.
Shazier’s teammate, wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, was watching this moment at home, stoically. Not because he lacks heart but because he never once doubted the will of his teammate.
“It gives Pittsburgh fans hope. I know Ryan, and he will come back. He’s fighting and training really hard, so I wasn’t surprised.”
That confidence in his teammate might explain why Smith-Schuster didn’t shed a tear when Shazier walked across the stage. It’s not because he didn’t have emotion at that moment.
“I knew Ryan could do it.”
Whether Shazier ever plays football again is secondary to the mission he’s on now. We’re all invested on a human level, but his teammates like Smith-Schuster were in that corner well before any of us. They’ve shed their tears, now it’s about supporting him in his recovery — one that appears to be going along well.
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That brand of confidence is love only a teammate can know.