The Steelers’ All-Pro Antonio Brown is by all accounts one of the best players in the NFL and arguably the best wide receiver in the entire league.
Brown is a superb football player, and there’s little argument against that statement.
He uses his speed to burns safeties with deep routes, beats slower linebackers to the edge on jet sweeps and also has the ability to come up in the clutch, like when he hauled in Sunday night’s game-clinching first-down conversion against the Chiefs.
Brown is a good football player – his line of 106 catches, 1,284 yards, 12 touchdowns backs that up – but sometimes his decision-making can be questionable, as far as the Steelers are concerned. As for me, I’m all for a few celebratory twerks even if it means a 15-yard penalty, but that’s a story for another day.
By streaming the Steelers’ locker room (and a few choice words by coach Mike Tomlin directed at New England, Sunday’s AFC championship game opponent) in the now-famous 17-and-half minute Facebook Live video heard ‘round the world, Brown broke the barrier between private locker room talk and what actually gets told to the media members.
Brown and his Pittsburgh teammates were fresh off an 18-16 win over Kansas City that sets up a marquee matchup against the Patriots for a chance at Super Bowl XLI, and were rightly excited. He and his fellow receivers did everything from quote DJ Khaled to model hats. The post-game prayer was in there, as well as remarks from Tomlin and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Former top draft pick Darrius Heyward-Bey caught some camera time, which is one of the few things he’s been able to reel in during his otherwise underwhelming career.
More than 40,000 were tuning in live late Sunday night on Facebook, which resulted in almost as many hot takes by pundits, commentators and columnists alike. The Monday-morning sports cycle was all about the video, instead of kicker Chris Boswell’s playoff-record six field goals and a controversial holding call that negated a tying conversion for Kansas City.
I loved every minute of it. Tomlin did not, and the league office could fine him for violating the NFL’s social media policy.
Oh well.
The NFL, already facing dwindling TV ratings, should be ecstatic ESPN and the other partner networks devoted hours of coverage to what happened in the postgame instead of the actual game, which saw Pittsburgh win without scoring a touchdown and that controversial late penalty.
For fans, Brown let viewers into the once-hallowed dressing room, showing players’ raw emotion and happiness before the cooling down period that precedes media availability. He captured Tomlin speaking his mind and being on the offensive, which should surely put to rest any notion that he’s a “great cheerleader guy,” as Terry Bradshaw, the four-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback quipped back in December.
A few years ago, there was widespread discussion about Marshawn Lynch, then with the Seahawks, and his affinity for doing just enough to fulfill his media responsibilities in the run up to the Super Bowl two years ago (“I’m here so I won’t get fined,” Lynch said over and over.).
Now, we finally have on tape a fiery coach of arguably the NFL’s most popular team calling an opponent an expletive and people are upset? I love the honesty, I love the passion and I love the thought of a steel cage war of words wrestling match between Tomlin and New England super-coach/perpetual villain Bill Belichick.
This isn’t the first time Brown has gone live on Facebook from the locker room. He also live-streamed after the Steelers’ Christmas Day, AFC North division-clinching win over Baltimore.
The NFL is in the entertainment business and Brown is definitely entertaining.
Let’s hope it stays that way.
