NFL analysts rip the Steelers for Cam Sutton signing, and rightfully so

The Pittsburgh Steelers truly do not care about anything but themselves. A franchise that has hoisted six Lombardi Trophies is rapidly approaching two decades since their last one. The elephant in the room is not only eye-gougingly obvious, but The Rooneys gave him an extension. Mike Tomlin is a problem, only further exacerbated by the team thinking it is okay to give Cam Sutton a contract.

I am not going to preach to you from atop a high horse, but we have seen in recent years that NFL leadership kind of, sort of cares about protecting women in terms of domestic violence. In reality, the league doling out any sort of punishment is pretty much a CYA initiative, and everyone knows this. Today, it is more important about what you can do on the football field than what you ever do off it.

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio was apoplectic over how the the Steelers thought signing Sutton was a good idea. Keep in mind the Detroit Lions dumped him as soon as charges were filed against him.

“I don’t get what the Steelers are doing here. Other than saying we had this guy for six years, we got him cheap. He’s a starting corner. We got him cheap. And we’ll just deal with this crap. And it’s a lot of crap. And it’s a bad look for the Steelers. And it’s a bad look for the Steelers they gave this guy a second chance.”

The most disgusting part of Sutton's first meeting with the Steelers media is that he seems to be playing the victim card. He is allowed to conduct himself this way because this is the type of football culture Tomlin has created. It is a wild crew of god knows what going on inside of that locker room.

"He’s almost characterizing himself as a victim. ‘We all go through adversity.’ Some adversity is set upon us. Some adversity we create by the things we do.”

No franchise does a better job of creating its own adversity than the Steelers. This will never change.

The Steelers need a cultural overhaul, but Tomlin winning at least nine games a year is so addicting.

Pittsburgh Steelers ripped to shreds over their signing of Cam Sutton

In a collision sport defined by a regulated level of violence, it can be challenging for some of its work force to not bring work home. There are no excuses for it, but we have to do better. When the league has pink ribbons and articles of clothing scattered throughout all of its stadiums at various points in October, ask yourself this: Does the NFL even care about a sizable chunk of its growing fanbase?

The Steelers should be a model franchise. As of late, in a weird, twisted way, they kind of are. They are serving as the horrible example of what not to do in some capacities. They are highly dysfunctional, masquerading as a blue-blood. For deeply entrenched cultural reasons, the winning never really goes away. While there may be model citizens associated with this franchise, they do love some bad seeds.

Ultimately, if Sutton wasn't this talented he would be out of the league by now. Winning claims to be panacea, but it really is a band-aid to cover up what is really going on. All I know is that for as long as Tomlin is empowered, promoting, or at worst allowing, these sort of shenanigans will continue within the Steelers organization. Maybe by the time my beard is fully grey they will figure out this isn't ideal?

It is hard to grow a game to the masses when one of your three biggest brands is becoming unlikable.