After two years, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally solved their WR2 dilemma by trading for Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. The two-time 1,000-yard receiver was introduced today and held his first press conference with Steelers media that featured an unexpected moment of vulnerability.
Pittman struggled to get Mike McCarthy’s name out after a question was asked, and he was quick to explain why.
“For those of you who don’t know, I stutter a lot,” Pittman said. “So it’s not because
I’m nervous, it’s just. thing that I’ve done since I was a kid. I’ve actually worked with the NSA on it, National Stuttering Association, so there’s my plug for them.”
Chris Carter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette asked Pittman to follow up on his journey to work on his stutter and how it felt to see prospect KC Concepcion also open up about his own stutter.
“It was definitely tough,” Pittman said. “Especially as a young kid where there were moments that I wouldn’t even talk. I would just point at stuff because I just couldn’t get words out. And through speed therapy and lots of other things, football has forced me to speak and do things I used to try to avoid. Like I would never be able to speak in front of people like this if it wasn’t for football forcing me into those situations.”
Pittman then noted that those with stutters struggle with how people perceive them.
“You think that people think that you’re dumb or unintelligent or something like that, and it makes you afraid of situations like [speaking publicly].”
Pittman adds that he thought it was “awesome” that Concepcion would share his own struggles with stuttering.
“I didn’t know that he also stuttered. It’s just good to show kids because when I was a young kid… I would be deathly afraid of popcorn reading [in school] and stuff like that. Just showing kids you can get through that, you’re gonna go through it, everything is going to get better. Just keep on working on it.”
It became very evident very quickly to everyone in Pittsburgh why Pittman won the Good Guy award in Indianapolis, which goes to the player who is most cooperative and well-spoken with the media.
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