Even though wide receiver Antonio Brown has yet to officially sign with the New England Patriots, the mercurial player was still reportedly on hand for the Sunday night contest between his son-to-be new team and his original one. The Patriots didn’t need Brown, regardless, as Patriots quarterback Tom Brady easily carved up the Pittsburgh Steelers defense to the tune of 24 completions for 341 yards and three touchdowns. He completed passes to seven different players and four different receivers.
With Brown now set to reportedly sign a one-year contract on Monday with the Patriots that could potentially earn him up to $15 million in 2019, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin was asked after his team’s Sunday night loss what his reaction was to New England landing Brown following his Saturday release from the Oakland Raiders.
“I have none,” Tomlin said. “He didn’t play for them tonight, he wasn’t gonna play for them tonight. He wasn’t gonna play for anyone this weekend, so didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about it or dwelling on it.”
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was also asked to give his thoughts on Brown joining the Patriots during his own press conference.
“Whatever,” Roethlisberger replied.
Unless Brown gets himself cut from the Patriots between now and the end of the regular season, the Steelers don’t have to worry about him being with New England unless the two teams somehow managed to meet again in the playoffs. The way the Steelers played Sunday night against the Patriots, we’re currently a long way from thinking a rematch is some sort of possibility.
Brown reportedly was to sit with Patriots team owner Robert Kraft Sunday night due to him not yet officially being signed to a contract. Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, however, refused to talk about Brown during his post-game press conference as he only wanted to talk about players currently on the team. Brady, however, answered a few questions related to Brown during his post-game press conference.
“Everybody’s excited to add great players,” Brady said. “It helps everybody win. You have great players that are sharing the burden of a tough football season. So, I think like anything else, whether it was Josh [Gordon] last year, or Phillip [Dorsett] when he got here a few years ago late, and then this year Antonio. you know, how much can you learn and process? And get in here and we’re all going to work hard and try to get up to speed as fast as possible.”
Brown obviously had to enjoy watching his new team blowout his old team Sunday night at Gillette Stadium. With that now over with he can attempt to quickly integrate himself into the Patriots offense so that he can play next week on the road against the Miami Dolphins, who like the Steelers, were blowout Sunday in their Week 1 game.
