The Draw Play

Alright lets finally talk about the big chest in the room, Antonio Brown.

I…honestly dunno what to say at this point. It’s all so baffling. This was a comic topic I wanted to touch on like 10 times this year, but then something else a little more immediate would grab my attention. I never had a concrete idea. I never got close enough to actually be forced to come up with something. I only did this one because it felt like I’d waited too long to talk about a subject I’m sure plenty of people want to comment on. And then Robert Kraft goes and gets a fucking handy from a slave and dammit now it’s pushed out another 2 days well here you go.

I hope one day we understand AB’s nonsense a little better. The dude is obviously greedy, he’s obviously talented, he’s obviously egotistical, but this is still bizarre. There must be something about the Steelers organization we don’t know. Something about that locker room we don’t get. If AB was in a vacuum it would be easy to judge him as purely an ego-driven diva boy. But with Le’Veon Bell also holding out the way he has, it feels more complicated. Two of the best at their positions in the game, rejecting a team with a good chance for success in the near future…why? Clearly egos are involved but it feels like there is an extra layer to this tasty drama cake.

Is the problem Mike Tomlin? Tomlin seems like a guy who doesn’t reign his players in very well and has always seemed loose. Is the problem the GM? Is he constantly undercutting these dudes enough to make them want to leave this bad? Is it the ownership? The Rooneys seem pretty hands off.

It’s Ben isn’t it.

Brown seems to have beef with the berger boy. They won’t come out and say it, because you gotta play politics, but most people seem to sense it’s there. Ben has been treated like royalty by the team despite being a dipshit asshole of a person. He’s good at throwing a football, but I think on a certain level even a lot of Pittsburgh fans take issue with him as a person. He’s a butt. His buttness is probably the reason he’s honestly never been praised as much as he could be for what he’s accomplished. He has a good argument for being the best of the 2004 QB class, but the debate usually talks about Rivers & Eli (for obvious trade related reasons).

Brown maybe wants to prove himself outside of this bubble. He’s a huge diva, he seems like he’s the person a lot of people assume OBJ is. Shooting shirtless videos of himself on social media, talking vague nonsense, acting like a ponce. He’s our true T.O. successor. I wish we had twitter when TO was forcing his bullshit in San Francisco and Philadelphia. It would have been magical.

The Steelers honestly should trade him. They should have traded him the instant he started with this shit, because the Steelers are fucking magic at finding good WRs. Maybe it’s another talent of Big Ben that doesn’t get enough credit. Brown is absolutely great as a player and possibly the best WR they’ve had during his tenure, but it feels like the Steelers are very good at pulling good to great WRs out of their ass.

Remember Santonio Holmes? Dude was great. Then he left. Who took his place? Mike Wallace. Remember how good Mike Wallace seemed as a Steeler? He left. Didn’t pan out. Antonio Brown replaced Mike Wallace, but he wasn’t AB quite yet. They also had Emmanuel Sanders shows up. Martavis Bryant was a decent guy too. All these dudes have left and been…bad to decent elseware. Sanders is pretty good. Mike Wallace was trash.  Thing is, they already have Brown’s replacement on the roster. The latest Steelers WR ass-pull goes by JuJu Smith-Schuster. So honestly I understand why Steelers fans are bummed, but they don’t have much reason to be. They keep finding pretty good dudes to replace them. It really does make me wonder how good Ben actually is.

I don’t know where Mr. Brownie Boy is gonna end up, but I hope he fails miserably because it would be satisfying to watch the failure drama. I hate giving credit to fatboy rapist but he’s a very good QB and I do think he’s a large reason for Brown’s success. But trade him, Steelers. Let’s find out.

Mr Big Ego. His chest is of okay size. It could be bigger.