As the Pittsburgh Steelers attempt to find a trade partner for Antonio Brown, it appears they’ll be swimming upstream due to his behavior while with the club.
NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala shared what some front office executives told her on Tuesday after the team met with Brown and agreed to find a trade partner. And it’s not really great news for the Steelers.
Best case: #Steelers convince teams there were mitigating circumstances, situation just got toxic for Antonio Brown and he can again be ridiculously hard-working, productive, smiley guy he was.
More likely case (per NFL front office exec I spoke to): Teams worry he's a headache.— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) February 19, 2019
According to some front office folks I've spoken to, biggest challenge for Antonio Brown right now will be proving that he will indeed respect his new club, his new coach and his new teammates. And as one of those execs said: respect, in his mind, includes showing up to meetings.
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) February 19, 2019
There was a report that came out a few weeks back indicating that Brown’s trade value was already much lower than most would anticipate.
Then, Brown went on a social-media barrage in which he threw shade at the Steelers and also pretty much burned any remaining bridge left between himself and Ben Roethlisberger.
Teams don’t want a headache. Brown’s behavior, both in the past and more recently, is certainly enough of a red flag to cause teams to pause before jumping into the deep end with both feet to trade assets for the a talented star.