Ryan Clark’s criticism of Chase Claypool after his Thursday Night Football celebration blunder was unnecessarily harsh

Ryan Clark is being a bit harsh.

Now, look. I’m a firm believer that, in the NFL, just about everything deserves a celebration if you’re able to get up on the next play after being hit.

These dudes are running full speed into each other constantly. Just catching the ball and moving forward should be looked at as a major success.

But there’s a time and a place for everything.

And on Thursday night football when Claypool celebrated a first down with the football as time ticked down on a crucial Steelers possession, that was absolutely not the right time to celebrate. The Steelers were trying to win a game.

Obviously, they lost. And a lot of people were annoyed by Claypool’s celebration in the moment. It’s not the exact reason they lost, sure. But it did hurt their chances of coming back.

One of the folks who was annoyed was former Steeler and current ESPN personality, Ryan Clark. And he absolutely let Claypool have it on ESPN’s Get Up.

But he probably took things a bit too far here.

“Chase Claypool is as mentally and emotionally underdeveloped as he is physically overdeveloped. … He only cares about himself! And that self-centeredness is part of what’s bringing the Steelers team and organization down.”

Yes, Claypool. But it didn’t really warrant all this. This rant is very mean. It’s one thing to challenge or question where a player’s head is at in the moment, but another to call him “underdeveloped” in any sense. That’s an attack. That sounds personal.

Some fans thought so, too.