The Pittsburgh Steelers seem to be at a point at which they just want to know what is going on in Antonio Brown’s head and how it all got to this point. That appears to be the impetus for the meeting that is set to take place this week between himself and team president Art Rooney II, based on public comments that the latter has made.
But it’s the public comments of the former that have been receiving the attention, because, well, they are dramatic when they are not vague. Brown has done and said some very odd and unusual things since the regular season has ended, including dying his mustache blonde because…well, I don’t know why nor want to know.
From posting videos of himself with James Harrison and others—that one in particular coming directly during Head Coach Mike Tomlin’s end-of-season press conference—to planned tell-all interviews that never happened to firing back at former teammates who criticized him.
Culminating in an impromptu question and answer session on Twitter in which he basically said what we all thought he would, and finally in the more ridiculous things from last night’s Instagram story in which he invited teams to call him up, as though he were a free agent (and they wouldn’t be able to go that yet anyway).
It gets one to thinking. And apparently, they are thinking. According to Peter King, there is at least one team that he knows is turned off by the possibility of pursuing Brown because of his social media antics. He may be employing this tactic to buy his way out of Pittsburgh, but at the same time it is harming his market.
King makes it clear that he said he knows of one team for which this is true, but he also speculates that it is or will be true of many teams. Frankly, this is the same thing that I’ve been thinking. While it only takes that one team to make it all work, it should be obvious that many wouldn’t want somebody who behaves the way he does in their locker room.
There’s a reason that his mentor, Terrell Owens, ended up making so many stops over the course of his career. Ordinarily, teams tend to keep their Hall of Fame talents around for a long time, if not for their entire career.
Unless there is a reason for them not to. Owens gave the San Francisco 49ers reason not to. Randy Moss gave the Minnesota Vikings reason not to. Brown is doing his best, and rather overtly, to give the Steelers reason to follow suit with their own elite wide receiver on their roster. But he’s also hurting his market at the same time.
