Trai Turner moves past spitting incident, grateful for support of Mike Tomlin, Steelers

Pittsburgh Steelers guard Trai Turner regrets getting ejected from last week’s game. But he doesn’t necessarily believe his actions weren’t justified after a Las Vegas Raiders player spit on him early in the fourth quarter.

“A serious action … took place,” Turner said Friday in his first session with the media since Sunday’s game.

Turner was caught by the CBS cameras spitting at a Raiders player. But Turner repeated Friday what Tomlin has said before: It was Turner who was spit at first.

“All the parties involved know what happened. The team knows what happened,” Turner said. “I just want to say thank you to (coach Mike Tomlin) and thank you to my teammates just for having my back. Everybody that saw the situation and was in the game knew what happened, knew what took place and why I ended up doing what I did.”

Turner would not identify the player whom he alleges spit on him. In the video of Turner’s retaliatory spit, it appears it is directed at linebacker Marquel Lee. Lee was released by the Raiders this week.

“Looking back on the situation, maybe I could keep my cool better, hold my head,” Turner said. “But when you’re presented with circumstances that you’re not familiar with, sometimes you go into foreign territory, and that’s kind of what happened.”

Trai Turner reiterates he was spit at first by a Raiders player and expressed appreciation to Mike Tomlin and his teammates for having his back pic.twitter.com/POQYjMHStj

— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) September 24, 2021

After the game and again during his Tuesday news conference, Tomlin supported Turner, an eight-year NFL veteran and five-time Pro Bowl selection who is in his first year with the Steelers.

“It’s just black and white, and what I mean by that is there is no gray area. It’s either right or wrong,” Turner said. “You address certain situations and circumstances, but there is always an action and always a reaction.

“I think everything that transpired this past week has shown me that I have more people that have my back than I thought. And most people can stand up and attest who I am as a player and the character and the man I have been in this league for the past eight seasons. It’s just been cool just people reaching out and ‘Coach T’ having my back.”

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