Injured Wilson honored with 'petty game ball' from Steelers' win - ESPN

DENVER — Quarterback Russell Wilson didn't play a single snap in the Pittsburgh Steelers 13-6 win against the Denver Broncos, but Mike Tomlin still gave him a game ball.

Not just any game ball — a «petty game ball.»

«I think we all know Russ got kind of did dirty last year,» quarterback Justin Fields said after the game. «So I know he wished he could have played today in this game, but it's awesome getting a win for him. He got a petty game ball.»

Tomlin routinely hands out that kind of game ball to his players in games where they beat their former teams. Practice squad wide receiver Brandon Johnson and punter Corliss Waitman, who each spent time in Denver, got petty game balls, too.

Wilson, who was released by the Broncos two years into a five-year, $242.6 million deal, was inactive as he continued to battle an aggravated calf injury, but he still spent plenty of time on the turf of his old stomping grounds during warmups. Wilson took the field more than three hours before kickoff to go through a battery of throws, but he paused at midfield before starting his workout to hug quarterbacks Zach Wilson and Jarrett Stidham and chat with former coaches and Broncos staffers.

He also briefly greeted Broncos first-round pick Bo Nix as he left the field following his warmup. For a couple minutes, the two were the only players on the field as the national anthem singers warmed up. Wilson threw passes to Steelers staffers in one end zone while Nix stretched with a Broncos staffer in the other.

But that's as close as Wilson got to his former team as he spent the game on the Steelers sideline as the emergency third quarterback for the second week in a row.

Prior to the game, Wilson downplayed the drama of returning to Denver to face