Antonio Brown ruffled more than a few feathers when he did a 17-minute live broadcast on Facebook after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend.
Mike Tomlin was caught saying some things that should have remained in the locker room, and the video gave the New England Patriots some bulletin board material for the AFC Championship Game.
Now we’re hearing, via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, that Facebook encouraged Brown to do the broadcast.
“Per a league source, Facebook actually encouraged Brown to engage in a Facebook Live session from the locker room after the game,” Florio wrote. “A Facebook spokesperson declined comment on the situation. One other source, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that there has been contact between Facebook and Brown but insisted that Brown was not directed to broadcast live from the locker room.”
Tomlin was particularly upset that his words, intended for his players and coaches only, were broadcast live for the world to see. He blasted Brown with some choice words after the incident and said team and potentially even league discipline would be handed down (more on all that here).
Of course, now we’ve learned that Brown has signed a six-figure deal with Facebook, which only adds to the intensity of the faux pas.
Brown has some serious work to do in his own locker room to repair broken trust. The locker room is supposed to be a sacred place. Brown violated it with his live broadcast, and now we know why — it was all about the green.