To the surprise of many earlier this week, Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster was activated from what was supposed to have been a season-ending injury suffered in Week 5, and took the field for Sunday night’s Wild Card game against the Kansas City Chiefs. The receiver had not been expected to return this season, but managed to fight his way back to the field for the team’s lone postseason game. And even on a limited snap count in Pittsburgh’s season-ending 42-21 loss, Smith-Schuster still tied for the team lead with five receptions, which went for 26 yards.
As he explained in a postgame press conference shared by the team, Smith-Schuster’s reasons for deciding to return to the field for the postseason were similar to the reasons that he spurned more money elsewhere as a free agent to return to Pittsburgh for an additional season: He wanted the chance to play with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger again.