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Steelers Alameda Ta'amu Tweets picture of himself in a car with a bottle of whiskey

It appears to be an older picture, but clearly, an unwise decision for the recently convicted alcohol offender vying to save his professional football career. The picture has since been deleted and he issued an apology, noting he no longer drinks.

By Neal Coolong
Jared Wickerham

Alameda Ta'amu is clearly a guy who's on his last chance with his employer.

After having been arrested and recently sentenced to 18 months probation for driving under the influence as well as crashing into multiple parked cars, Ta'amu is in a position where he needs to do it cleaner and straighter than the next guy.

A picture tweeted out of him from an unmarked time likely won't help that.

The blog Steelers Depot captured a tweet from a user named "ME0ish" that Ta'amu apparently re-tweeted of Ta'amu driving a car while the passenger was holding a bottle of Fireball whiskey:

Taamu-225x300_medium

Ta'amu has since deleted the tweet, posting these mea culpas.

While the Steelers Depot report suggests Ta'amu was in the car with the bottle as recently as Sunday night (reference was made to him "celebrating" last night, when clearly the sun is out and there are leaves in full bloom on the trees), it doesn't appear to be a recent picture. Ta'amu's tweets suggest it happened following the draft in 2012, when the Steelers traded a sixth-round pick with Washington to select him.

Ta'amu sentenced to probation

 Steelers NT Alameda Ta'amu was sentenced to 18 months probation for driving under the influence, stemming from an incident in October in Pittsburgh.

That in no way absolves his stupidity, however. The indignation of re-tweeting something like that in the first place shows poor judgement, let alone the lack of concern over the fact people will no doubt assume it was a recent picture (even if it wasn't). Clearly, not causing trouble and unintentionally indicting oneself to trouble have little difference, considering his situation.

If he doesn't go out and drink, as he mentioned, good for him, and we wish him the best in his efforts to control what appears to be a significant problem. And a simple reminder to not go out of his way to make people skeptical, including his employers, would be a wise course of action right now.


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