Just days after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest following a tackle, the NFL was back in action for Week 18’s slate of games. And across the league, the support for Hamlin’s continued recovery was truly great to see.
But one celebration, in particular, was disappointing from Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith.
Following a fourth-quarter sack of Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, Highsmith remained flat on the ground as a teammate (the replay angle obscured who the teammate was) mockingly performed CPR on him. That couldn’t have been an oversight, considering how Hamlin’s life was saved thanks in part to the nine minutes of CPR performed on the field in Cincinnati.
Classless Steelers with the CPR celebration pic.twitter.com/PT0hSPgwGN
— Ben Tylka (@tylkabm) January 8, 2023
The entire celebration had fans asking Highsmith — who tweeted a prayer for Hamlin — for an explanation. Like, he should have realized right away that it was a terrible idea.
What's with the celebration? Care to explain the thought process during the CPR celebration?
— King Rayzor Ray (@KingRayzorRay) January 9, 2023
Other fans called the Steelers classless for the entire sequence.
This was how Twitter reacted
People from across the world are not happy with the Steelers “CPR” celebration in light of Damar Hamlin’s life threatening injury that just happened earlier this week 👀 pic.twitter.com/2YlNv0WfXa
— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) January 9, 2023
Steelers defense celebrated a sack by performing CPR. Of all weeks… not a great look. Yikes. pic.twitter.com/ZvVPCwS6ya
— Gunz (@TheGunzShow) January 8, 2023
I thought the Steelers CPR celebration was the worst thing I saw today and then I saw this. Clueless stupidity in both cases. https://t.co/M5Yrd3NSoA
— Linda Cohn (@lindacohn) January 9, 2023
Even if the Steelers “always do this” or not, doing it in the same week that another player almost died and had to have CPR on field is about as insensitive as you can get. pic.twitter.com/jKyrYOY6Da
— Paul Crisp (@pcrispy) January 9, 2023
So the week after medical trainers save the life of Damar Hamlin, Quay Walker pushes one who is trying to help a player?
Furthermore, a Steelers player celebrates by doing CPR on his teammate?
What is happening? Why?
— Hayden Grove (@H_Grove) January 9, 2023
Steelers picked the woooorrrrst possible week for a CPR celly 🙃 pic.twitter.com/IKkH1qq4QN
— Ace (@Treloar95) January 9, 2023
Not a good look here for the Steelers cpr celebration…read the room pic.twitter.com/m1zFWEwucN
— Soulofarrowhead (@Soulofarrowhead) January 8, 2023
Pittsburg Steelers very tasteless. Pretending to give CPR! pic.twitter.com/kK5sZePNch
— Ken Olguin (@kameo189) January 9, 2023
Totally classless https://t.co/AXwZxXZOnw
— JT (@Senor_Yoshua) January 9, 2023
They really should have read the room better.
