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Steelers trading Antonio Brown to Buffalo Bills: report
Updated Mar 8, 2019; Posted Mar 7, 2019
https://www.pennlive.com/steelers/2...ng-antonio-brown-to-buffalo-bills-report.html
PITTSBURGH — The Steelers are trading Antonio Brown to the Buffalo Bills, according to the NFL Network.
Though it remains unclear for what Brown is being traded, general manager Kevin Colbert has stated he has no preference between picks or players or combinations of same. The Steelers lowered their demands from a first-round pick and then some for Brown to simply a first-round pick, according to ESPN.
Buffalo holds the ninth overall selection in the draft.
If a deal is concluded, Buffalo will have beat out the Oakland Raiders, the Washington Redskins and Tennessee Titans among others in their pursuit of Brown, according to the NFL Network.
Such a trade would end Brown’s nine-year tenure as a Steeler. Having entered the league as sixth-round pick, Brown became the team’s star wideout and one of the more captivating talents of his generation with 59 touchdowns from 576 catches for 7,646 yards in the last five seasons.
On the final Wednesday of the 2018 campaign, however, Brown told Mike Tomlin his knee, ankle and foot were sore, Tomlin said. The head coach gave Brown the day off from practice, Tomlin said after the season. Brown confirmed that Tomlin told him not to practice, though on LeBron James’ “The Shop” he took issue with Tomlin sending him home.
Brown was at the facility the next day and in the locker room during media availability, but went on to not practice. Tomlin said Brown again complained of knee soreness on Thursday. Brown then skipped a team-ordered MRI that Friday, Tomlin said. He didn’t communicate with Tomlin until Sunday morning, when Drew Rosenhaus told the coach Brown would be ready to play, per Tomlin’s account.
Tomlin said he told Rosenhaus he couldn’t play, and that Brown should meet him at Heinz Field, where he went on to tell the receiver to support his teammates. He left before the second half of what became a Pittsburgh win, albeit in vain.
The team had lost control of its playoff future the week prior when JuJu Smith-Schuster fumbled on the road against the New Orleans Saints. Since the Baltimore Ravens held off the Cleveland Browns in Week 17 – in a scene watched by Steelers players and fans on the big screen behind the South end zone – Pittsburgh’s season ended without a trip to the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
Tomlin had still not heard from Brown three days after the final game of the year. Art Rooney II would go on to tell reporters Brown hadn’t got back to him either, but on Feb. 19 Brown and his father met with Rooney at Palm Beach Airport in a larger meeting that also included Kevin Colbert and Omar Khan.
At the NFL Combine, Colbert maintained that Brown would not be traded in a discounted deal.
Shortly before midnight on Thursday, Brown commented on an NFL Instagram post about the trade, writing “fake news ��.” Colbert has previously stated Brown does not have final say over his trade destination.
FindOn the Monday following Pittsburgh’s elimination from the playoffs, multiple reports broke citing a walkthrough incident between Brown and Ben Roethlisberger having led to Brown’s absence later in the week.
Via Twitter and appearances on “The Shop” and ESPN, Brown took issue with the way Roethlisberger behaved, referring to the quarterback’s public criticism of Brown. The signal caller has used his weekly in-season show on 93.7 WFAN to single out coaches, players and in a special edition of the show last spring, the selection of Mason Rudolph.
The owner mentality tweet, and more context
Colbert backed Roethlisberger as the “unquestioned leader” of the team, and said he’s OK with the quarterback criticizing him, too. Brown told ESPN that Colbert mean when he said when he characterized Roethlisberger as being the leader of 52 kids.
The general manager was speaking about Roethlisberger being the only Super Bowl winner under contract. He also said he thinks Roethlisberger is burdened by his role in the team and repeatedly backed the signal caller. Roethlisberger, among other players, does get consulted about team personnel decisions, Colbert said.
Fellow Steelers have remained friendly with Brown via social media. James Harrison watched Tomlin’s end-of-season press conference with Brown.
And as of Thursday afternoon, according to Brown’s Instagram story, Terrell Edmunds, Jaylen Samuels and Marcus Allen were with Brown in South Beach.
