{"id":163754,"date":"2025-06-27T23:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/163754\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T23:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T23:10:10","slug":"dallas-cowboys-george-pickens-drops-the-ball-on-youth-camp-commitment-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/163754\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys\u2019 George Pickens Drops The Ball On Youth Camp Commitment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens is receiving backlash after reportedly bailing on a youth camp following his trade from the Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

Pickens was a member of the Steelers entering this offseason before being shipped to Dallas in exchange for draft compensation, with the wide receiver previously committing to a youth football camp in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

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Despite being traded to Dallas, Pickens reportedly informed the camp that he would still be in attendance, as the camp was initially scheduled to take place on Saturday.<\/p>\n

However, an email from TruEdge Sports, the organization that runs the camps, states<\/a> that Pickens has now decided against making an appearance.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, as of last week, TruEdge was notified by George\u2019s team that he has decided to walk back on his word and is no longer interested in attending the camp. Let us be very clear: we are deeply frustrated by this decision and the position it has placed all of us in,\u201d states the email, per Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team at TruEdge was fully prepared to host a camp this Saturday because we were led to believe George would follow through on his commitment. His sudden decision to back out not only reflects a disappointing lack of accountability, but also shows a disregard for the families and children who were excited to meet him. We are incredibly disappointed by his actions and his actions do not express the goals or motives of TruEdge Sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

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As a result of Pickens no longer attending the camp, organizers have postponed the event to July 20, with TruEdge Sports now confirming that Steelers\u2019 tight end Pat Freiermuth will be attending the event in place of Pickens.<\/p>\n

The camp is also offering various levels of compensation for campers who were expecting Pickens to be in attendance, with the options including free autographs and 25% off a future camp, according to Sports Illustrated.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the decision to bail on the camp has ruffled the feathers of some former NFL players.<\/p>\n

Former Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh spoke<\/a> with Steelers legend James Harrison about the situation on the Nightcap podcast Wednesday night, explaining that the kids \u201cjust want to see George Pickens.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cSo, disappointed a lot of kids, and I\u2019m sure he don\u2019t care about that. But once you say you\u2019re going to do something, whether you play for the Steelers, you play for the Cowboys, it\u2019s a day out of your time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMatter of fact, go surprise them. And continue to keep them people, and those young kids, and those families as fans. Because obviously they signed up for your camp because they liked you as a Steeler. Even if you go to the Cowboys, they\u2019re still going to be a fan. So now he\u2019s lost fans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickens had not issued a statement regarding his decision at the time of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens is receiving backlash after reportedly bailing on a youth camp following his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[228,230,229,257,2461,7,467,2710,6,9073,57,2348],"class_list":{"0":"post-163754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-bengals","9":"tag-cowboys","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-george-pickens","15":"tag-james-harrison","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-pat-freiermuth","18":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","19":"tag-sports-illustrated"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114757856806917005","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}