It was reported Monday morning that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown has now joined the team’s offseason workouts after missing the first few days of Phase One last week. According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Mike Garafolo of FoxSports 1, Brown did tell the team initially that he would be skipping initially due to him not being happy with his current contract, but has since changed his mind and is now going about things the right way.
Did tell team he wouldn't be there. Is now. Still wants a new deal but taking a different approach. https://t.co/tEHqIGI6R3
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) April 27, 2015
Garafolo was the one that originally broke the story last week that Brown was mulling a long offseason holdout in hopes that the contract that he signed in 2012 would be reworked. Brown, however, has yet to make any public comments as to whether or not that is indeed the case and the same goes for his agent Drew Rosenhaus.
After the original reports surfaced last week that Brown might decide to stay away all offseason, a large portion of the Steelers fan base lashed out at the former sixth-round draft pick on social media with their displeasure. By the end of the week, Brown was hinting that he would be joining his teammates soon at that was currently spending extra time with his new baby.
It’s hard to speculate as to what has really happened so far with Brown as it relates to any dialogue that he may have had with the Steelers over the course of the last few weeks. However, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin will be holding their annual pre-draft press conference at noon on Monday, so perhaps the two will be asked about the current situation.
Brown still has three years remaining on his current contract so a holdout likely wouldn’t have accomplished anything except for it being a distraction to the rest of the team.
If Brown indeed did have a quick change of heart as Garafolo and Bouchette both are suggesting, it was the right move.
