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T.J. Watt, Several Steelers Cut Out Social Media to Raise Awareness

Several Pittsburgh Steelers are going dark for a cause.

PITTSBURGH -- T.J. Watt and several of his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates are going dark on social media as a New Years pledge to raise awareness about screen addiction and cyberbullying.

The campaign, #TewntyYou, is sponsored by Six Star Pro Nutrition, which is working to better gender equality and Name, Image and Likeness rights for student athletes.

"We know that it’s impossible for us to detach completely, especially with team meetings being moved online and needing to study game film, but that’s it," Watt said in a press release. "We’ve all seen the dangers of screen and social media addiction, especially during the pandemic. We’d like to ideally be communicating more in-person, understanding each other face-to-face, and creating acceptance offline, instead of intolerance online."

Watt is being joined by his brother Derek, Chukwuma Okorafor, Devin Bush, Trai Turner, Joe Haden and Diontae Johnson. The Steelers players are committing to cut down on screen time starting Dec. 29 and running through the end of the NFL season. 

"Excess screen time has become a major problem in our society, whether it is tempting our ever-futile attention spans, showcasing unrealistic body images and cyberbullying – often with racial, homophobic or anti-semitic contexts," said Jarrod Jordan, Chief Marketing Officer at Iovate Health Sciences International Inc., the makers of Six Star® branded products. "What T.J. and Pittsburgh’s football team is doing through the #TwentyYOU campaign is noble in an era where athletes are keenly aware of their self-marketing responsibilities and sacrificing that for their own and their team’s collective good will only benefit them going forward."

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