The Steelers defense just dropped a bombshell, admitting they are actually responsible for creating Le’Veon Bell’s and Antonio Brown’s entire hip-hop careers. Seriously, that’s what they’re saying!
The Hilarious Post-Practice Rituals
During the “Killer B’s” peak, that Steelers offense was electric. Brown’s route-running and Bell’s patient rushes made scoreboard operators earn their paychecks. But off the field? Both guys jumped into hip-hop. Now, former Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree, speaking on Cam Heyward’s podcast “Not Just Football with Cam Heyward,” says the locker room hype machine is totally to blame for it all.
Dupree joked, “We are the reason for everybody watching, man. I feel like we got to take the responsibility that Le’Veon really started rapping. AB too. We hyped them up so much in the locker room. They thought they was fire.” He’s talking about how post-practice rap battles became the standard entertainment. Guys like Stephon Tuitt, Heyward, and Dupree would circle up, building up the offensive stars no matter the lyrical quality.
From Locker Room Fun to Full-Blown Disbelief
Dupree remembered, “We’s the real deal, making them think they was the best rappers in the world. All you got to do is say one hard line and everybody just agreeing with you, ‘oooohhhhh’ running around in circles.” That relentless hype wasn’t contained to just the locker room. It spilled onto game days, with the team blasting their tracks during stadium warmups.
But what started as a laugh eventually turned into disbelief for the defense when those side projects blew up into full-blown music careers and started impacting off-field business decisions. Dupree even laughed about it, saying, “We done did all this hyping you up to be a rapper. Now you going to sit out now and be a rebel, man. It was funny, bro. It was funny.”
So while fans might remember that era for the prolific offense and the eventual contract holdouts, the defensive unit has a different, funnier memory. They look back fondly on the locker room culture that accidentally launched two unexpected music careers. Who knew a few ‘oooohhhhh’s could do all that?
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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