Antonio Brown needs to emotionally move on from Steelers
Antonio Brown is a great player. He’s also emotionally in Pittsburgh while physically in Oakland.
Brown, 31, is one of the greatest wide receivers the National Football League has ever seen. This is the reason despite all the nonsense, Oakland sent third and fifth-round picks to the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason for his services (before packing $30 million guaranteed into his current deal).
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The idea was Antonio Brown is worth any of the drama, but so far, that has to be questioned logic. Everyone is well aware of the helmet issues throughout the summer, let alone the frostbitten feet. Now add a minor detour from Tuesday. Brown tweeted for Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to “shut up already,” commenting on Big Ben’s interview with NBC’s Michele Tafoya about what went wrong between the pair in Pittsburgh.
Is the tweet a big deal? No. Brown isn’t going to cause a firestorm with it, but really just a small hubbub. The Raiders won’t care, but it is a symptom of Brown’s continued issue of focusing everywhere but the field. The star receiver has barely been on the field more than a combined week throughout July and August. It’s time to leave everything with the Steelers alone, even if he has a point about Roethlisberger.
As a quick aside, why does Roethlisberger have to constantly feed into the beast? Maybe he likes the attention. Maybe he feels jilted for some reason. Maybe he genuinely can’t figure out why Brown is mad at him. Weird.
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Regardless, Â for the sake of both Brown and the Raiders organization, the attention must shift to the silver and black. The team is playing its last season in the Bay Area before moving to Las Vegas, where a new stadium will be ready and waiting come 2020. Oakland deserves a nice sendoff.
Furthermore, the team needs to bounce back from a miserable last-place campaign in 2018. Head coach Jon Gruden has more job security than anybody on earth, but Derek Carr certainly doesn’t. Another poor year, and he could be looking for a new home. The same can be said for some assistants. Having Brown operate at peak efficiency is key, considering he’s clearly the best player on the retooled club.
With the regular season less than two weeks away, the drama thankfully will turn to on-field matters soon enough.
