Things haven’t gone well in his post-playing days, but when he was on the field, there was nobody better at the receiver position than former Pittsburgh Steelers great Antonio Brown.
That greatness came through a work ethic that was unrivaled during his time in the NFL, leading to Brown being the true alpha at the position in the NFL landscape.
Former teammate Cameron Heyward, on the latest episode of his Not Just Football with Cam Heyward, responded to a question from a viewer and told a great story about Brown’s work ethic.
“AB’s practice habits were second to none,” Heyward said, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “You see the highlights, you see him shaking Joe Haden, you’ve seen him finishing at the top of routes. You’ve seen him make these unbelievable plays. But the cool thing about AB was the way he finished special teams drills, the way he would catch a punt return and take it all away for a touchdown, the way he would take it for a kickoff return every single time.
“And it was just like habit for him.”
Throughout his Steelers tenure, there were plenty of highlights with Brown, who put together an incredible five-year stretch where he was easily the best receiver in football. He dominated week after week, and teams had no answer for him. The combination of Brown and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was a deadly one.
Even when Brown was at the height of his powers, he never slowed down with the work. It was Jerry Rice-like, and it started in training camp with the way Brown would work on his hands.
Back in 2018 at training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Brown would hit the JUGS machine after every practice, and over a four-day span at camp, Steelers Depot’s Alex Kozora tracked Brown catching 513 passes after practice. That included one day in which he had former Steelers cornerback Brian Allen trap one of his arms against his body, forcing Brown to catch the ball one-handed.
That work ethic helped Brown go from a sixth-round pick out of Central Michigan who was largely forgotten about behind Mike Wallace and Emmanuel Sanders, into the best receiver in the game and the face of the franchise with Roethlisberger for a number of years.
“Like AB was 1. There was no 1A, no 1B. AB was the top wide receiver when he played, week in and week out,” Heyward said. “He was a safety net for Ben, and you just couldn’t stop it. Like, both of those guys benefited off each other, but watching AB just work and practice, then catch a hundred balls after practice — he even had a dream room in his house that he would just constantly be thinking about football.
“AB took it to a totally different level and that’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever seen. He was never running from the work. And so, I’ve never seen someone that obsessive about like just getting better and it showed on the field.”
Entering the NFL with that chip on his shoulder as a forgotten commodity at receiver as a sixth-round pick drove him to new heights. It was so impressive to watch week after week, and to hear the stories about his work ethic only cemented his greatness on the field.
It’s what led him to hauling in 837 passes with the Steelers for 11,207 yards and 74 touchdowns across nine seasons with the Steelers, numbers good enough to likely get him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Check out the full episode of Not Just Football with Cam Heyward below.
