Yesterday, I published an article about Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers coach Richard Mann and his comments regarding the receiving corps that he has to work with this year, focusing in on a comment that the Steelers website article from which the quote was taken claimed was in reference to receiver Antonio Brown.
It turns out that the subject of the quote was misattributed. Mann was actually referring to another former sixth-round wide receiver named Brown: Justin Brown.
I was aware that his comments sounded familiar. It turns out that the quotes in the article were taken from an interview with Mann on the field during minicamp that was first published on the team’s website on June 17th.
As a reminder, here is what Mann had to say about the growth of Justin Brown in his second season:
“I think he’s done a lot of things really well. He doesn’t really look like the same guy. He’s made a transition. He’s very confident. He’s matured. He understands the concepts. He’s smoother. His body language is different. He’s just a different guy. He’s matured a lot”.
That sounds a lot like what could have been said about Antonio Brown in his second season, during which he racked up over 1000 yards receiving and added another 1000 in the return game en route to his first Pro Bowl appearance.
Of course, we shouldn’t expect that of the younger yet taller Brown in his second season, who is in fact just battling to make the roster this time against the likes of Darrius Heyward-Bey, Derek Moye, Danny Coale, and C.J. Goodwin.
The younger Brown has been one of the most talked about players of the offseason so far, certainly among the non-rookies, who typically receive the most attention. He definitely appears to have had a strong showing thus far.
But of course we have already talked about and detailed the advances that he’s made in previous articles over the past two months, so the point need not be belabored further in the absence of new information.
As I wrote, I’d thought that the quote was familiar to me, and in fact upon research, Dave Bryan already used it in an article back when the interview was first published talking about Brown.
While the misattribution error was on the Steelers’ website, it was my error to not double check and ensure the accuracy of the statement, so for that I apologize.
In the meantime, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the things that I wrote about Antonio Brown yesterday were indeed true. The circumstances of his situation entering the 2013 remain the same as they were, and he is certainly in a better position, coming off a record-setting, All-Pro year, now than he was then.
