Antonio Brown is in hot water with the Pittsburgh Steelers after his failure to show up at team meetings prior to the season finale.
This was followed by him not playing in the game despite belief he was healthy enough to do so then leaving early before it was over. More than ever it appears the mercurial wide receiver is at odds with both his teammates as well as the coaches and front office. Whispers abound that he’s already requesting a trade out of town this offseason. Given how terrific he’s been in black and gold for so long, it’s difficult to understand how things got to this point.
Then again not everybody is surprised. Former Steelers safety Ryan Clark saw this coming years ago. He was with the team back in 2012 when Brown was beginning his ascent to the top of the NFL as one of its best wide receivers. He knew that for all the incredible ability the receiver had, his attitude was not conducive to the team-first mentality Pittsburgh football was known for over the previous decade and he tried to warn people about it.
He told this story to Scott Van Pelt on Sportscenter.
"“Antonio Brown is walking past the weight room in training camp and right now we hear that Mike Wallace has turned down his deal. Antonio is going into his third year. You heard that Mike Wallace has turned down his deal and I knew already that they were going to offer Antonio. He’s walking past and I turned to the strength coach and I saw, ‘You give him money? You’re going to create a monster.’That day in practice, Antonio and I almost get into a fight because he’s saying things to Coach LeBeau. He’s screaming at Coach LeBeau, screaming at us defensively, ‘Don’t touch me. I’m the franchise.'”"
Clark knew this ending was inevitable for Brown and the Steelers
He went on to say that winning is not the bottom line for somebody like Brown. It’s all about the stats with him. How many catches, yards, and touchdowns he gets. When he’s fed, he’s fine. However, start to get another receiver involved too much and he’ll inevitably start to be a problem. This has been the case ever since JuJu Smith-Schuster became a more prominent player in the Steelers passing game last season.
It’s just the tragic reality of the NFL. Not everybody has that unselfish mentality of putting the team’s success first. Some guys don’t feel they can play their absolute best without putting their own desires above everything else. They’re the football version of mercenaries. Guns for hire. In the right circumstances, they can be immensely valuable. In others, such as on teams that thrive on deep camaraderie in the locker room, that’s going to be a big problem.