Pittsburgh Steelers coach “directs team to not participate in pride month” calling it "woke crap"
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No, Steelers coach did not call Pride Month ‘woke crap.’ That claim started as satire.
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The story originated on a satire site.
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A Pittsburgh Steelers spokesperson confirmed that coach Mike Tomlin did not make such statements.
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A social media page associated with the Pittsburgh Steelers posted an image showing team staff gathered after participating in a pride parade. As of June 13, we saw no other messages from the team regarding about Pride Month.
What do Pride Month and football have in common?
Well, lately, social media misinformation.
"Breaking: Steelers' Coach Tomlin Directs Team To Not Participate In Pride Month, ‘It's Woke Crap’ read a June 9 Facebook post that showed an image of Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin alongside another image of people holding rainbow flags.
(Screenshot of Facebook Post)
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The viral post links to a story in the comments section. That story claimed Tomlin made anti-Pride celebration comments during a press conference. "We are here to play football, not to get involved in social or political movements," it quoted him as saying. "Pride Month is woke crap, and it has no place in our team activities."
A Steelers spokesperson confirmed that Tomlin made no such comments, and a review of Tomlin’s recent press conferences shows he didn’t mention Pride Month.
The story appears to have started on SpaceXMania.com and its affiliated website Essports.com — the same network of satire websites that gave rise to a False story about the Kansas City Chiefs refusing to participate in Pride Month.
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When the Steelers claim was first shared on Facebook it had a satire disclaimer, but as it spread and the story was reposted on other websites, that disclaimer disappeared.
Some National Football League teams have made headlines this month because the teams have not made public statements acknowledging Pride Month on social media.
As of June 13, the official Steelers X account, Instagram, and Facebook had not shared anything LGBTQ+ related for Pride Month, but the team’s official community relations account on X posted a picture on June 1 after it said some of its staff marched in a local pride parade.
We rate the claim that Tomlin directed his team to not participate in Pride Month and called it "woke crap," False.
Our Sources
Email interview with Pittsburgh Steelers spokesperson, June 13, 2024
PolitiFact, "Kansas City Chiefs didn’t issue statement about not participating in Pride Month," June 10, 2024
Facebook post, June 8, 2024
News Today, "Breakiпg: Steelers’ Coach Tomliп Directs Team To Not Participate In Pride Moпth, "It’s Woke Crap," archived June 13, 2024
Pittsburgh Steelers, "Steelers Press Conferences Video Archive," accessed June 13, 2024
SpaceXMania, "About Us," archived June 13, 2024
Esspots, "About Us," archived June 13, 2024
SpaceXMania, "Breaking: Coach Tomlin Announces Ban On Pride Month Celebrations, "It’s Woke Agenda’," archived June 13, 2024
Esspots, "Breaking: Steelers’ Coach Tomlin Directs Team To Not Participate In Pride Month, "It’s Woke Crap"," archived June 13, 2024
Facebook post, June 6, 2024, archived June 13, 2024
Facebook post, June 9, 2024
News, "Breaking: Steelers’ Coach Tomlin Directs Team To Not Participate In Pride Month, "It’s Woke Crap"," archived June 13, 2024
PinkNews, "Harrison Butker's Kansas City Chiefs among the few NFL teams not to celebrate Pride Month publicly," June 11, 2024
Fox News, "10 NFL teams so far decline to bow to pride month messaging," June 4, 2024
Marca, "Chiefs and Cowboys among NFL Teams not publicly celebrating Pride Month," June 10, 2024
X profile, "Pittsburgh Steelers," accessed June 13, 2024
Instagram profile, "Pittsburgh Steelers," accessed June 13, 2024
Facebook page, "Pittsburgh Steelers," accessed June 13, 2024
X profile, "Steelers Community Relations (@SteelersCR)," accessed June 13, 2024
X post, June 1, 2024
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No, Steelers coach did not call Pride Month ‘woke crap.’ That claim started as satire.
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