Antonio Brown Meets With Pittsburgh Steelers President Rooney

One of the more inexplicable storylines during the 2018 NFL season was the petulant holdout of Pittsburgh Steelers’ wide receiver Antonio Brown. Brown was obviously disgruntled during the majority of the year due to any number of factors, not the least being that at age 31 he was no longer the focal point of the Steelers’ offense. The two sides were at an impasse all season but things really blew up in the Steelers’ final game of the year. The original party line was that Brown didn’t play because he was suffering from a knee injury. Turns out that wasn’t really accurate–in practice leading up to the final game he pitched a fit directed at quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, left practice and essentially disappeared the rest of the week. He was on the sidelines for the final game in street clothes.

In the time between the practice blow-up and the final game of the season Roethlisberger could have thrown Brown under the proverbial bus. Instead he took the high road, initially downplaying any talk of a conflict. He finally admitted that he had tried to get in touch with Brown to patch things up:

“I called and texted and reached out numerous times and tried to find out what going on but I really couldn’t get any answers.”

Brown made it clear what was going on. Not longer after the end of the season he requested a trade due to nebulous issues with Roethlisberger and head coach Mike Tomlin. Team owner Art Rooney II wasn’t quite as charitable as ‘Big Ben’ saying that Brown ‘quit on the team’ but did just enough to still get paid:

“He probably did what he needed to do to avoid his last check being voided.”

Despite this rancorous situation it looks like the sides are all kissing and making up so they can move on. Brown met today with Rooney and posted this on Twitter:

“Had a great meeting with Mr.Rooney today we discussed a lot of things and we cleared the air on several issues! We both agreed that it is time to move on but I’ll always have appreciation and gratitude towards the Rooney family and Steelers organization.”

Also involved in the meeting: Brown’s agent Drew Rosenhaus, Steelers GM Kevin Colbert and executive Omar Khan. The conversation was described as ‘cordial’ with all sides in agreement that it was best to move on. Rosenhaus explained after the meeting that the Steelers are in complete control of the trade process:

“They have the ability to talk to other teams right now and find the best deal for them. We hope they get a great amount of compensation. We want everybody to win here. it would be great for the Steelers to get what they deem fair compensation for Antonio, and for Antonio to find a new team at this point. And we reap all the positives from that. So that is where it is.”

It remains to be seen who will be interested in Brown and what they’ll be willing to give up. But it is nice that everyone seems to be getting along.