Several members of the Pittsburgh Steelers are extremely active on social media. One of those players is wide receiver Antonio Brown, who has created a brand for himself across several platforms.
One of those platforms is Brown’s verified Instagram page. Brown’s posts on his page have been sporadic, and out of the ordinary recently, but one post spiked the interest of fans when he mentioned former offensive coordinator Bruce Arians, and even Mike Tomlin.
Check out the post:
If you're like me, you probably wondered why in the world Brown would be calling out Arians and Tomlin the way he did. Well, in the most recent article of ‘Asked and Answered’ by Bob Labriola, he shines a light on why Brown might be holding a grudge against his former offensive coordinator.
But when it came time to cut the roster, Arians’ opinion was that Brown was nothing more than a practice squad player. That was what Arians advocated, which would have meant waiving Brown first before he could be signed to the practice squad. And during his 24 hours on waivers, Brown could have been claimed by any other team in the NFL.
Cut the guy who would become the most productive receiver in franchise history, a guy who today is the best receiver in the NFL and has been the best receiver in the NFL going on a few years now. To put him on the practice squad. That was the idea BA brought to the table late in the summer of 2010.
The receivers the Steelers kept coming out of training camp that year were Ward, Wallace, Antwaan Randle-El, Sanders, and Arnaz Battle. There’s no room for Antonio Brown on that depth chart? Really?
Some tremendous perspective on Brown’s feelings in the eary years of what has turned into a dominant NFL career.
In typical Labriola fashion, he also provided some insight into Arians’ new career as a color analyst for NFL games.
So this fall, if you happen to be listening to Arians on a talk show or as an analyst during a CBS telecast, just keep in mind that the same guy who’s talking to you in that moment is the same one who wanted to cut Antonio Brown.
Why Brown has been holding a grudge for so long is anyone’s guess, but Brown pulls motivation from a variety of places and this just might be the most recent.
If it equates to another dominant season, Steelers fans won’t mind one bit.