The Steelers don't seem worried about reports that Martavis Bryant requested a trade in recent weeks, and in fact some of his teammates even joked about it.
Here's center Maurkice Pouncey: "We all died laughing on the plane, like it was funny as hell," he said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "Come on. Everybody wants the Steelers to have a story."
"I saw the reports," left guard Ramon Foster said, via PennLive.com. "I thought he was talking about for basketball. I think he wanted to switch sports."
Bryant added: "As far as me getting traded, I would like to get traded to the (Golden State) Warriors" before denying the reports.
"No, I'm good, man," he told reporters. "Good to go. Play ball, play this year out strong, finish strong and move forward. ... I just got to enjoy what I'm doing here, focus on the now. I'm in Pittsburgh, I'm playing here and that's all I can focus on."
Meanwhile, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Tuesday that after speaking to Bryant, it's clear the wideout wants to stay in Pittsburgh.
"I have talked to him," Roethlisberger said during his weekly appearance on 93.7 FM, via the Tribune-Review. "He doesn't want to go anywhere. Sometimes things come from agents because they want what they think is the best for the player and don't realize that it ends up hurting the player. I don't know exactly what happened here, but what I do know is there hasn't been any inklings of unhappiness. It's unnecessary drama."
And has Bryant, who had just two catches for 27 yards in Sunday's win over the Chiefs, appeared unhappy at any point?
"None whatsoever," Roethlisberger continued. "A matter of fact this week I thought he gave more effort in the run game, in blocking for other guys. ...
"Obviously, his numbers aren't what he was hoping and expecting. He's been gone for a whole year. It's not like he missed four games, six games, eight games. It's been a whole year. That's tough. I'm happy to have him back as a teammate, a football player, and I'm excited for what is going to come for him down the road."
Bryant, who had eight touchdowns as a rookie in 2014 and six more a season later, missed all of 2016 due to a suspension. Through six games this season, he has just 17 receptions for 231 yards and one touchdown.
Meanwhile, coach Mike Tomlin calls the reported trade request a "non-issue." "I have no clue where those rumors come from," Tomlin said Tuesday during his weekly press conference. "He appears to be happy and focused, so it's a non-issue for us."
The coach also doesn't consider it a distraction. "Where it's coming from, I'll leave it for you guys to ponder and digest. It's not a real distraction for us."
You know who else doesn't think this is a distraction? Cornerback Joe Haden, who signed with the Steelers just before the season after spending the previous seven years with the Browns.
"When you win a lot, people are really interested in what's going on with your team, with your locker room," Haden told the Tribune-Review. "Just being around these dudes and being able to have these personal relationships and understand that we are a really, really good team just trying to work on winning a championship, that's really our only goal we have in here: Just winning games."
As always, winning fixes everything.
