Steelers safety Mike Mitchell goes off on NFL and calls out Andy Dalton in the process

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Mike Mitchell went off today during the team’s open media session.

“This is football. If you want to see flag football, let’s take our pads off,” the Steelers safety said. “I feel like I gotta ask I guy ‘hey, are you ready for me to hit you right now.’”

His outburst was in regards to the NFL’s random dishing out of suspensions, such as one game for a clearly dirty and egregious hit from Rob Gronkowski far after the whistle and then one game for Juju Smith-Schuster, who also had a dirty hit (on Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict) but while making a football play.

Mitchell, who has been credited with more than a few dirty hits on NFL players, including Bengals, took aim at Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton during his speech.

“Andy Dalton threw a ball to Tyler Eifert two years ago. Tyler Eifert had to dive for it. I was aiming for his gut,” Mitchell said. “But if he don’t dive, he don’t get hit in the head. That’s $50 grand out of my pocket though because Andy throws a bad ball.”

Hate to break it to Mitchell, but Dalton did nothing wrong on this play and as a result of his carelessness, Eifert was concussed and missed game time. Yes, it wasn’t a perfect throw, but it was a throw that Eifert caught in a football game.

Mitchell went on to call former NFL quarterback and current ESPN commentator Matt Hasselbeck an asshole for commenting on him being a dirty player. He also claims he donates more money to underprivileged kids in Cincinnati than Bengals players.

OK, Mike, here’s where you’re officially OUT OF LINE. Bengals players go above and beyond in the Cincinnati community and bragging that you donate more than them (with ZERO evidence) is just sad and unnecessary.

Definitely give his whole speech a listen. There are some small pieces of valuable information in there, such as the need for a better Collective Bargaining Agreement. But, there was no reason to call out Dalton for Mitchell’s dirty hit or to call out Bengals players, claiming he donates more money than them to Cincinnati-based charities.

It’s not like Mitchell is someone with a clean record, but he does make some good points tangled between a lot of bad ones. If you need a list of dirty hits from Mitchell, I’m always willing to provide it.