JuJu Smith-Schuster gives emotional speech on season-ending injury
During a charity event for his foundation, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster gave an emotional speech about his season-ending injury. In his speech, he mentioned how much the game of football means to him and how he’s intending to come back stronger than before.
JuJu Smith-Schuster’s emotional injury speech
“Last night was the hardest night for me because football has done so much for me in my life,” Smith-Schuster said to the crowd. “More than you guys will ever know. And different things in the world — it can be family, friends or any motivation that may be — my stepdad put me into football when I was four years old. And it was fun, I mean you get to hit kids and not get in trouble.
“So I always loved the game. Last night was hard for me because when I got the call from the doctors — A shoulder injury, I thought, you put it back in and you’ll be fine within two weeks. I can take two weeks off, come back and play this season. And the doctor called me, he was like ‘I think we have to do the surgery, we’ll get a second opinion.’ And they said it was a season-ending injury. And I sat there and I cried, I cried all night. I cried because I love this game so much, more than anyone will know.
I know all the social media thing, I know Tiktok and my dancing and all that — I do it because it’s my personality, I love it. But football will always come first. Without football, I wouldn’t be who I am today. Without football this wouldn’t be — I wouldn’t be a role model for a lot of people. And I cried that night because you just never know what the future holds for you.
“If I look at the light in front of me and don’t keep my head down, then I’ll come back even stronger than I was this year.”
Smith-Schuster’s injury
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be without JuJu Smith-Schuster for the rest of the season following his shoulder injury. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported Monday afternoon that the wideout and the Steelers have decided he will have surgery, ruling him out for the year. The procedure was successful, but the third-year player is a huge loss for a Pittsburgh offense which has struggled this season.
In Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos, Smith-Schuster took a handoff on an end around and took a big hit from Broncos safety Kareem Jackson. Needing help off the field, he never returned.
The USC product has 14 receptions for 129 yards this season and has yet to find the end zone. His 14 receptions and 129 yards are the fourth most on the team.
Chase Claypool leads the team with 341 receiving yards while Diontae Johnson leads the way with 25 receptions. The Steelers have been dealing with a lack of depth in their receiver room to begin with, as Johnson missed Sunday’s game and Claypool has surfaced on injury reports throughout the week.
On3’s Pete Nakos contributed to this article.