So here we have Antonio Brown appearing on the very playoff activated, very basketball focused LeBron James, who just took another L to the Bucks,’ HBO show “The Shop” setting the record straight on what really went down between himself and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The clips that are out there are pretty good, if you’re into players trashing other players. Brown bodies up Big Ben, again, letting us know that Roethlisburger seems to believe that he’s above everyone else in the organization and can tell anyone else off, in the media, and damn you for thinking that anything is ever his fault. I think we’re all pretty clear on that Big Ben is quite the sexual assaulter,allegedly, asshole in the way that he handles his relationships with his teammates. So, I’m fine with what Brown said about that.
Where I 100% don’t believe him is when he says this…
Which leads me to yell…
I just won’t believe this claim. No way man. You can’t convince me that just because he was hurt, Mike Tomlin said he can just go home for the day on the final week of the season against the Bengals, in a game that they desperately needed to win, and have the Ravens lose. You’re gonna stand there and tell me that coach Tomlin just said “umm Antonio, not sure if you know this but if you’re a star and you’re hurt, you could simply leave. What, didn’t you get the memo?” That’s apparently how Brown took it because he told LeBron and the boys, while they were getting haircuts, “damn, that’s where we’re at” as if this is the first time he’s ever seen or heard of a player being told they could leave the facility, not get treatment, and just go home.
To that I say…
Nope Nope Nope. No way that’s how it works. Now, was I there? No I was not. But, I’ve never heard of a story of player of any caliber being hurt and the coach just telling them they could go home and not worry about practice. What I have seen are countless images of guys riding the stationary bikes or being told that they’ve been getting worked out with the trainer. I and you have heard and seen all that before. Am I to believe that this is a dark secret of NFL teams that that they tell certain players that they can leave when injured, that they don’t have to stay with the team? I find that extremely hard to believe.
What I don’t find hard to believe is that Antonio Brown has been thinking about exactly what he was going to say, definitively, about what happened that day, decided he was going to say that Tomlin said he can go home because it’s not like their interaction was filmed and there probably wasn’t anyone next to him when he approached him to dispute it. So, it’s basically his word against Tomlin’s meaning we’ll never truly know and Brown knows that. I suppose it’s smart, but only in Brown’s head because we already know that all crazy antics that he’s executed since the season ended has cost him at least a little leverage with other teams. We know some teams are out on a guy who is awesome at receiver, but is wearing a blonde mustache non-ironically, and is behaving like a guy who’s on the verge of becoming the Kony 2012 guy.
I fully expect the Ryan Clark’s of the world to come out today and say that they’ve never heard or seen a player just get sent home from practice just for being hurt. That the idea of sending guys home for just being a bit banged up is just a crazy idea. Or, I’m dead wrong and this kind of thing happens all the time. One of the two will be the outcome.
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