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Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff Writer
DENVER — Quarterback Russell Wilson didn’t play a single snap in the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ 13-6 win against the Denver Broncos, but coach Mike Tomlin still gave him a game ball.
Not just any game ball — a “petty game ball.”
“I think we all know Russ got kind of did dirty last year,” quarterback Justin Fields said after the game. “So I know he wished he could have played today in this game, but it’s awesome getting a win for him. He got a petty game ball.”
Tomlin routinely hands out that kind of game ball to his players in games where they beat their former teams. Practice squad wide receiver Brandon Johnson and punter Corliss Waitman, who each spent time in Denver, got petty game balls, too.
Wilson, who was released by the Broncos two years into a five-year, $242.6 million deal, was inactive as he continued to battle an aggravated calf injury, but he still spent plenty of time on the turf of his old stomping grounds during warmups. Wilson took the field more than three hours before kickoff to go through a battery of throws, but he paused at midfield before starting his workout to hug quarterbacks Zach Wilson and Jarrett Stidham and chat with former coaches and Broncos staffers.
He also briefly greeted Broncos first-round pick Bo Nix as he left the field following his warmup. For a couple of minutes, the two were the only players on the field as the national anthem singers warmed up. Wilson threw passes to Steelers staffers in one end zone while Nix stretched with a Broncos staffer in the other.
But that’s as close as Wilson got to his former team as he spent the game on the Steelers sideline as the emergency third quarterback for the second week in a row.
Prior to the game, Wilson downplayed the drama of returning to Denver to face the team and coach who benched him late in the 2023 season following a contract dispute.
“I have a lot of amazing friends from there,” Wilson said last week. “… I just think that for me it’s always about relationships. You think of being able to build some cool relationships with those guys and people, but most importantly we got to strap on the black and gold and go win and I think that’s our mentality.”
While Wilson didn’t see action in his revenge game, Fields more than managed the job in his second Steelers start, though the output was inconsistent. Fields started out 10-of-12 for 101 yards and a touchdown — his first as a Steeler — in the first half but had only 16 passing yards in the second as the offense sputtered, slowed by penalties and breakdowns in the run game.
“It’s hard to win in this league and especially on the road in these hostile environments,” he said. “So being able to start off 2-0 this season and going back home next week, it’s a great start to the season.”