“To have an angry or unpleasant attitude or way of behaving caused by a belief that one has been treated unfairly in the past.”
That’s what having a chip on one’s shoulder means, at least according to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary.
New Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad cornerback Anthony Brown certainly feels that way in his football playing career. He took it one step further after the 2016 NFL Draft, getting a literal chip tattooed on his shoulder.
No, seriously.
Brown, a former standout cornerback at Purdue, fell in the 2016 NFL Draft to No. 189 overall — hence the 189 under the chip on his tattoo.
“Been playing with a chip on my shoulder all my life,” Brown wrote in an Instagram post in 2017 revealed the tattoo before deleting it a few days later.
That chip on his shoulder, both literally and figuratively, helped lead Brown to a rather strong NFL career to date. Through the 2022 season, Brown has played in 94 career games — all with the Dallas Cowboys — starting 69 of them. In those 94 career games, Brown has recorded 324 tackles, nine interceptions, 57 passes defensed, five forced fumbles and one touchdown from 2016-22.
In that time, Brown played 4,841 career snaps for Dallas, including 3,154 as a boundary corner and 1,274 in the slot.
During the 2022 season, Brown struggled before tearing his Achilles in Week 13, ending his season. Prior to the injury, Brown had yet to record an interception, graded out at a 55.0 overall from Pro Football Focus, allowing 44 receptions for 561 yards and five touchdowns while missing nine tackles to that point.
After suffering the torn Achilles, Brown was placed on season-ending Injured Reserve and became a free agent at the end of the 2022 season. While rehabbing from the torn Achilles, Brown was largely forgotten about at the cornerback position, but that all changed for the seven-year NFL veteran on Wednesday when he signed with the Steelers on the practice squad.
There, he’ll get a chance to continue rehabbing from the torn Achilles and subsequent surgery and will get a chance to slowly incorporate himself into the defensive scheme under head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive coordinator Teryl Austin. Once he’s healthy, Brown could be a solid addition to the 53-man roster, shoring up cornerback even further, especially after the addition of Patrick Peterson in free agency and Desmond King II Wednesday morning after he was cut from the Houston Texans.
Passed over, largely forgotten about and seemingly written off, Brown is leaning into that chip on his shoulder — again — with his opportunity in Pittsburgh.
