The Pittsburgh Steelers are already dealing with more drama this season than at any point since the entire Ben Roethlisberger situation earlier in his career.
With star running back Le’Veon Bell still holding out and a rift appearing between him and his teammates, the season didn’t start off swimmingly. Add in a tie against Cleveland in Week 1 and a loss to Kansas City this past Sunday, and that’s magnified further.
Now comes this report from Ed Bouchette and Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette indicating that star wide receiver Antonio Brown, potentially the best player at his position in the NFL, did not show up with the rest of his teammates to the team’s facility on Monday.
“It is not clear if Brown’s absence was excused by coach Mike Tomlin, but several sources indicated they did not know why Brown didn’t show up with the rest of his teammates for meetings and film review,” the two reported.
This comes on the heels of Brown throwing the football world for a loop on Monday, bringing up “trade” in a tweet (more on that here).
We’re not exactly too sure what’s happening behind the scenes here. What we do know is that Brown was visibly upset following Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs. He then hurriedly escaped Pittsburgh’s locker room after the game.
Anything at this point would be pure conjecture. Though, it is important to note that Big Ben targeted JuJu Smith-Schuster 19 times this past Sunday against the Chiefs. That’s more than Brown himself received.
Either way, something seems to be up behind the scenes in Pittsburgh. We’ll learn more after the team’s off day on Tuesday and when players report to the facility on Wednesday. If Brown is a no-show, concerns will grow about his discontent.