Local News

Tomlin: Anthony Smith Is Not A 'Thug'

LATROBE (KDKA) ― The Steelers are getting ready for their second preseason game this Thursday versus the Buffalo Bills in Toronto.

This morning Head Coach Mike Tomlin held his weekly news conference to discuss the team's injury report.

Troy Polamalu will not be playing due to his hamstring injury.

Deshea Townsend will be out as well due to a groin problem.

The big thing has been the quarterback issue with Charlie Batch out with an injury that's going to keep him out of commission for a month or two.

Byron Leftwich was signed on Sunday.

Leftwich was out there again today and he has been impressing the coaches with what he has learned so far.

Coach Tomlin outlined how much playing time the quarterbacks will see.

"Ben is going to play with the first unit," said Tomlin. "We are going to play our first unit some more than we played in the last game. Byron is scheduled to play and Dennis is scheduled to play and if we have enough snaps maybe we'll play Potts. That's up in the air depending on how the other things unfold."

Several times during today's news conference, Tomlin came to the defense of Anthony Smith, who has been referred to as a thug by some media reports.

Last week, Smith had a brutal hit on Hines Ward in practice.

"We desire to be professional and practice with great professional etiquette," said Tomlin. "We understand we fall short of perfection sometimes… that happens. This is a physical, emotional game played by those kind of people. That doesn't make him a thug."

Tomlin came back to the Smith issue a few times clearly agitated by the writer who wrote that he was a thug and Tomlin said smith was bothered by the comment as well.

As for the venue going across the border and going into Canada, Tomlin was asked about it and said he doesn't care where the team plays. He just hopes the team enjoys it.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

---