Antonio Brown put the Pittsburgh Steelers in a bad spot right after the team’s win Sunday night by posting a live video that contained some stuff that was supposed to be for players and coaches only. Included in the Facebook video was head coach Mike Tomlin calling the New England Patriots “a-holes,” among other things that would have been better contained in the locker room.
“When you get to this point in the journey, not a lot needs to be said,” Tomlin said (h/t New York Post). “Let’s say very little moving forward. Let’s start our preparations. We spotted those a–holes a day and a half. They played yesterday. Our game got moved to tonight. We gonna touch down at 4 o’clock in the f–king morning. So be it. We’ll be ready for that a–. But you ain’t gotta tell them we coming. Because some of us might not like the damn [unintelligible]. The chest pounding. Keep a low profile.”
Not surprisingly, Tomlin is less than pleased that his private speech was made public, and that it contained what will certainly become bulletin board material for the Patriots heading into the AFC Championship Game.
Speaking about this entire incident on Tuesday, Tomlin didn’t mince words talking about Brown’s mistake.
Tomlin: Antonio Brown . . . "it was foolish of him to do that, selfish and inconsiderate. It was violation of our policy, league poilicy"
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) January 17, 2017
He also said the team will discipline Brown, who could be facing league discipline on top of it.
Then Tomlin said a few things that indicate the seriousness of this situation.
Tomlin: He's a great player, respected largely in the locker room but incidents such as this don't help him in that regard
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) January 17, 2017
Tomlin: That's often why you see great players move from team to team. Don't want that to happen to Antonio Brown.
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) January 17, 2017
Tomlin told reporters he hasn’t yet spoken with Brown since the video was broadcasted live on Facebook but said, “I will see him at some point and when I do, I will address it.”
In addition to the fact that this is just an embarrassing mistake to let the general public into a private team moment that was supposed to be treated as such, it’s just never a good thing to give Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and Co. any extra motivation to beat the tar out of you. Even more than that, the crowd in Foxborough is no doubt going to give the Steelers even more hell than usual to stick up for their team Sunday.
It’s going to be interesting to see how Brown and the Steelers respond.