GMFB star Tom Pelissero pulls up receipts live on air after Pittsburgh Steelers finally end quarterback ‘debate’

THE Pittsburgh Steelers finally ended their quarterback ‘debate’ by naming Russell Wilson as their starter for the upcoming season.

But Good Morning Football host Tom Pelissero proved live on air that the Steelers have had Wilson lined up to be the first-choice QB since March.

Getty

X/GMFB

X/GMFB

X/GMFB

Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin confirmed this week that Wilson will be under center against the Atlanta Falcons on September 8.

Justin Fields was believed to have a shot at being named the No. 1 quarterback if he performed well in preseason.

The 25-year-old was acquired in a trade from the Chicago Bears in a trade in March.

And Tomlin said the quarterbacks competed for the role throughout the preseason.

But Pelissero showed that this was never the case.

“I would go back to the night that the news broke of the Justin Fields trade,” he said on GMFB .

“That followed a unique sequence of events. Russell Wilson announced that he had signed with the Steelers.

“Kenny Pickett basically finds out at that time, ‘Hey Russ is coming in.’

“Pickett thinks he’s going to get a chance to compete and Mike Tomlin tells him, ‘No Russ is in the pole position.’

“Pickett says, ‘You know what, I think I want to play someplace else.’

“That’s what led to the Justin Fields trade which broke on a Saturday night at the end of free agency week.”

On March 16, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport broke the news that Fields would join the Steelers.

Pelissero, who was out for dinner with his wife, decided to dig deeper into the story.

He asked a source: “Is there competition between Russell Wilson and Justin Fields in Pittsburgh?”

The source replied: “Russ is the starter.”

Pelissero tweeted the news that evening and showed a screenshot of the social media post live on air.

“At that point it was very apparent that this was going to be a situation where Russell Wilson was going to have to lose the job or Justin Fields was going to have to do something incredible to get the job,” he said.

“How does Mike Tomlin want to play in football games? He wants to run the football, play great defense and get a [QB] in who’s experienced.

“Once Mike Tomlin and the Steelers commit to a plan, they generally stick to it.”

Similarly, ESPN analyst Dan Orlovsky has claimed that the Steelers pretended to have a battle for the starting quarterback role.

“I would’ve started Justin Fields, but this was never a quarterback competition. We were bamboozled a little bit,” Orlovsky said on Get Up!

“I have endless amounts of respect for Mike Tomlin. There was no way that this was a quarterback competition.

“Russell Wilson missed practice and only played in essentially one game.

“I remember when both of the moves were made being on the show, and we said if this was really going to be an open quarterback competition, I expected Justin Fields to win that.

“This was never a quarterback competition.

“If it was, Russell would’ve played much more in preseason Week 3 this past weekend.”