Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Chase Claypool told DAZN Canada on Thursday that if the Cleveland Browns had won Sunday's Wild Card Round game between the two teams with more class - and not been "super classless" toward his teammate and fellow receiver, JuJu Smith-Schuster - then Claypool wouldn't have been so "salty" over the loss.
"Not that I'm praying on them getting beat really bad, but someone had asked me for a score prediction and that was just kind of a way of me saying I think the Chiefs are going to beat the Browns," Claypool explained. "If the Browns had won with more class, then I wouldn't have been so salty about it. But them mocking JuJu during the game and after the game just didn't sit right with me. ... They were just super classless, you know against JuJu, towards JuJu what they were saying on the field toward the end of the game. So I'm not going to have respect for a team that doesn't have respect for us. ... They can enjoy the win and another week of football, but they'll be on the couch right next to me, so it's all good."
Claypool said earlier this week on TikTok Live that it was a "bad loss, but the Browns are going to get clapped next week so it's all good." (In video games, getting "clapped" means being destroyed, embarrassed or obliterated by an opponent.)
The Browns visit the Kansas City Chiefs for a Divisional Round showdown on Sunday at 3:05 p.m. Eastern.
Before the Steelers lost to Cleveland, Smith-Schuster disrespected the Browns by saying "they're still the same Browns" and "the Browns is the Browns."
Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield responded by yelling "the Browns is the Browns" as he ran into the locker room after the game.
On Monday, NFL Network's Peter Schrager compared Steelers quarterback and former Miami University standout Ben Roethlisberger's effort to Dan Marino's final NFL game - the Miami Dolphins' 62-7 playoff loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2000.
The Enquirer's Paul Daugherty wrote Monday that "the Ben End is nigh" as "he is no longer Ben, Master of Cincinnati Disaster."
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Paul Zeise wrote that the Steelers' Roethlisberger era needs to be over.
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