Pittsburgh Steelers’ Running Back James Conner Wears Custom Cleats To Honor Mac Miller

Rapper Mac Miller was a huge fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and unfortunately he passed away on September 7. It appears that Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back James Conner was a huge fan of the rapper as well, and decided to honor him with a special pair of cleats, Billboard reports.

The NFL star tweeted several pictures of the cleats and the phrase “Thank you Mac.” The shoes are printed with a variety of Miller’s song titles in blue. Each side features a different portrait of Miller. The rapper’s likeness is shown staring into the distance and in front of a microphone on the side of the shoes, and the phrase appears again. The custom shoes are also printed with RIP Mac on the tongues. It is assumed that Conner is wearing them in Saturday’s game against Kansas City, as a gesture to honor the artist.

Conner played football for the University of Pittsburgh before being drafted in 2017 by the Steelers. Miller was a notoriously huge fan of the sports team, even bringing his famous girlfriend Ariana Grande to sit on the sidelines at some of their games.

Miller was a Pittsburgh native, and his fandom was so well known that his passing was covered by sports bloggers, including Behind the Steel Curtain, a fan site for Pittsburgh sports. The site reported that Miller was beloved by Pittsburgh Steelers players and fans alike.

Mac Miller was special to them because he was a Pittsburgh native too, and he was achieving great things. Pittsburgh is a smaller city, and when a local achieves something great, everyone is sharing a piece of the pride. Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa were making Pittsburgh residents proud with their success in the music industry. Miller had just released Swimming, his fifth studio album.

However, the rapper had been resonating with Pittsburgh audiences long before he became nationally famous. Even Le’Veon Bell returned to social media to tweet his condolences about the rapper’s passing, and he’s been off all social media since becoming embroiled in a lengthy contract dispute. Even the Steelers enmeshed in drama love this Steelers fan.

When he attended home games, Miller was often asked to lead the pre-game towel ‘twirl’, a task which he did with gleeful aplomb. He was a notorious fan in a notorious fandom, and it makes sense that Steelers players like Conner want to honor his legacy with a special footwear tribute.