Full transcript
"Just hand us all some flags," started Mitchell. "Hand us all some flags and let us go out there and try to grab the flags off, because we're not playing football. This is not damned football. When I was six years old watching Charles Woodson, Rod Woodson, Sean Taylor, the hitters, Jack Tatum, that's football. This ain't football. You gotta know what the risk is when you sign up. No one wants to be paralyzed. No one wants to have head injuries.
"These are all things that are negative, but let's not try to turn football into a dangerous, barbaric game. This is how I've changed my family legacy. Before I got drafted I had $368 to my bank account. That is far from the case today. I've changed my family legacy by this beautiful game of football for forever, so let's not try to turn it into some evil, dirty game. It's football. It's no different than UFC fighting. This is a combat, contact sport. There are going to be injuries. That's just what it is. If you don't want to get injured then don't come out here. This is for real men. This is a man's game. Ray Lewis said that a couple years ago. I stand by that. It's a man's game. If you want to be a little kid, you don't want to get your ### hit, then don't come out here, because this is for grown men. Straight like that."
Mitchell was asked if the Steelers have more respect for their primary competitive rival, the Baltimore Ravens, than they do for the Bengals.
"Man there's respect out there," Mitchell said. "If you cross those lines, I have respect for you. I respect that you're a competitor. I respect that you have some type of toughness about you. I respect that you're a talented, world-class athlete. I'm sitting here talking to George after the game because he is one of my good friends. That's why I felt like I had to tweet and try to defend him because I think it's just crazy. I know George. I know his fiance. He's not that way, but we are physical safeties. And think about what you ask us to do. We're always the last line of defense. We're always making bang-bang plays. You never see us getting to line somebody up in a hole like a linebacker. We're playing full speed. He's 4.4. We're 4.4, 4.3 speed, like, aim THAT. You go do that. You can't. It's just the risk of playing football. If a ball is in the air and a man jumps, or a man ducks his head, how do you want me to re-adjust my body? You cannot do it. At the end of the game this is foot ball. If you want to see flag football, let's take our pads off. That would make it easier for me, because now I don't have to wear heavy s***. But give us flags to pull off because that way I know what we're playing.
"I signed up to play full-speed, contact football and we're not doing that. I feel like I've got to ask a guy, 'Hey, are you ready for me to hit you right now before I hit you?' And that's crazy. I'm gonna mess around and get hurt trying to protect an offensive player because he's running an over route. Dammit, your quarterback shouldn't have thrown that ball messed up. That happened two years ago. I'm not joking at all. Andy Dalton threw a ball to Tyler Eifert two years ago. Tyler Eifert had to dive for it. I'm aiming for his gut. 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. Make that make sense.
"At first you're taking our money, but now I've got (expletives) like Matt Hasselbeck calling me a dirty player and trying my character, and we've never met before. I donate more money to Cincinnati underprivileged kids than probably people on the Bengals. So don't give me that name. My nephew goes to school there. Man, I take all that personally. If you don't know me. If you've never had a conversation with me, don't judge us by what you see in football, because football's my competitive side.
"There's just so much going on in the game right now. Yes, obviously I'm a little flustered, but we've got to do better. We've got to do better. I said it yesterday. We've got to get better as players when we sign the next CBA. We've got to get better at leadership as who's running the league, because obviously everybody from fans, owners, players are all disappointed in Roger Goodell. We just gotta do better. We can't have a guy where you just hand out discipline on how you see fit. There needs to be a set guideline on how we do what we do. I see two people get post-play penalties, one that don't have to do with football and you get the same suspension as a guy who is making a football play in a football game. It's absolutely absurd. But like I said, it's Steelers versus the world."
about these types of plays are people in online message boards. I think the player's couldn't care less.
