Antonio Brown standoff reaches fever pitch as Steelers agree to part ways

Roethlisberger has gone as far as to be pointed in his public comments on Tomlin in the past, calling him out for what the quarterback has perceived as a lack of discipline among young skill players and pointing fingers at the head coach for not enforcing it. The fact that the team ultimately allowed Big Ben to stay on with minor accountability following two sexual assault accusations surely has helped cultivate this feeling of untouchability beyond what a standard quarterback of his status and age would.

Brown had a little something for Tomlin as well, asserting that the coach misled the team and told his teammates he quit on them, when Brown says that wasn’t the case:

You can’t have an item like this dominate a slow news period for the NFL without the media machine pushing it a little farther up the hill. And so on Monday, Peter King reported that he was told by one NFL team source that it was reconsidering trading for AB because of his hair-trigger tweets. Whether that’s sincere or one of those games front office people play with access journalists to toy with other teams is something the public can only speculate on at this point.

What we do know is that Brown did meet with Steelers owner Art Rooney II today, and both sides agreed that parting ways is in the best interest of all parties involved.

Getting more draft pick compensation for Brown if there is a trade is obviously a concern for Pittsburgh. Parting with arguably the best receiver in football for less than at least a second-round pick seems foolish, but now that the market knows the team's hand might be forced, there’s not a whole lot Pittsburgh can do to maintain that value. After going through the Le’Veon Bell fiasco, the Steelers surely realize a player is capable of sitting out a season, though Brown is still under contract through 2021.

Brown has played a part in this beyond just tweets, of course. He’s being investigated by the NFL based on an incident of alleged domestic violence in which the police report claims he pushed the mother of his child to the ground after she came to his home seeking reimbursement for the child’s haircut. Brown’s lawyer denies his client committed any wrongdoing. Brown also skipped a court date and was found guilty for a traffic citation after being caught driving over 100 mph in a 45 mph zone. Normally, that kind of misbehavior from a pro football player barely registers with the public. Now it just adds to the accumulation of negative headlines.

Brown posted on his Instagram account on Monday night that he’s seeking a new team willing to dole out guaranteed money. At 30, he’s right about at the age where a receiver could conceivably get one last big payday before his production begins to slip. It’s hard to blame AB for, like Bell, trying to maximize his earnings while he can. 

Teams have seldom ever done right by players in these situations. You can’t blame the players for being cynical themselves about the same game. Whether Brown is making the right moves to achieve those ends, well, that remains to be seen.