T.J. Watt, other Steelers pledge to stay off their phones for a week

If you’re posting on social media about T.J. Watt’s chances of winning the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year award, chances are Watt won’t see it.

Not this week, at least.

Watt is the headliner of a group of Pittsburgh Steelers teammates who pledged to put their phones down fully for a week and then limit their overall usage after that. The public move is part of a partnership with a nutritional company.

While noting he’s “not the biggest social media guy by design,” Watt announced his no-phone pledge via an Instagram post.

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A post shared by TJ Watt (@tjwatt90)

“(Social media) can create more problems than benefits,” wrote the message posted to Watt’s verified IG account. “According to IG’s own data, one-in-five teens say it makes them feel worse about themselves!”

Watt joins his brother, Derek (a Steelers fullback) and teammates Chuks Okorafor, Devin Bush, Trai Turner, Joe Haden and Diontae Johnson in committing “to spending more time communicating face-to-face (as best we can during covid).” Watt’s message wrote that “(d)etaching from our screens is just a start” to “our own self-improvement and improving our own mental health.”

Turner said Wednesday that as an eight-year NFL veteran, he’s learned to ignore social media criticism and that he understands that fans’ opinions come with his job. His motivation to go dark online was to better spend his free time.

“For me, it’s to be able to take the time to be with loved ones,” the 28-year-old Turner said. “The older I get, the more I appreciate my mother being around, the more I appreciate my father being around. My grandparents are still here. So I just kind of have to re-focus (priorities). Football, family and God, and that’s what I focus on.

“It’s more of a personal thing for me just to hone back in on what I need to and start off the year right.”

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