Earlier this morning I talked about some of the remarks that Shannon Sharpe made about former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown, saying that he wouldn’t want to play with him if he were still in the league based on how he has handled himself. His Undisputed co-host Skip Bayless has a theory about what Brown has been acting out even after being traded, with his blessing, to the Oakland Raiders.
“This is another indication of Antonio Brown left his heart in Pittsburgh. He can’t let Pittsburgh go. It’s killing him that he’s not in the middle of all things Steelers”, he said. “Because it’s a great place to play. And one day he’s going to wake up and say ‘what was I doing?’. Because clearly, he left a better team behind. He’s in a rebuilding mode. He left a better quarterback behind. And JuJu is in the power position here because he was voted MVP. And JuJu made the Pro Bowl last year”.
Brown inexplicably attacked former teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster when a Steelers fan reminded Brown that the young wide receiver was voted team MVP last year, saying that he fumbled the playoffs away with his late fumble—the first of his career—against the New Orleans Saints in Week 16.
Brown clearly isn’t happy. But of the two teams, which do you think is happier right now? As he keeps acting up, the Steelers have to be more and more pleased. The Raiders? Not as much, surely, as they were hoping the trade would make him content.
“I’m sure Jon Gruden was not pleased the first time. Now he’s got to be seething over this. And you know what? He has no out here. He’s gonna have to bite his lip and gnash his teeth, because Jon Gruden is the one who gave Antonio a big new deal to come to Oakland”, Bayless said.
“He basically called Antonio Brown their savior. Because of that, you’re stuck, man. You’ve just got to ride this one out. But clearly, his focus is not on making the Raiders better, it’s trying to make the Steelers worse”.
Gruden might love diva wide receivers from afar, but his track record in actually working with them is a little more checkered. And even Keyshawn Johnson wasn’t as ‘explosive’ as Brown is being right now, with the aid of advancements in social media technology.
“Good luck Raiders with that in your locker room. Boy I sure hope they get out and start winning 10 games in a row and he has 100 catches in the first 10 games”, Sharpe added. “Because if he don’t, you see what he’s capable of”.
The recipe is there for things to go south in Oakland in a hurry, in large part because Brown can’t remove himself from his own past that he is trying to escape. Meanwhile, Steelers fans are starting to feel better and better about what they got back for him in trade.
