No Bell no Brown? What is going on in Steeler country? Those two have been the face of the franchise in previous years. Has Tomlin lost control of this team? One thing is for sure the players seem to be responding to all the of sudden changes in Pittsburgh very negatively.
Sources say Browns absence from practice was a personal issue and not team related. Antonio Brown does not want to be traded by the Steelers and was not with the team Monday because he was dealing with a personal matter, his agent said.
Brown got into a sideline confrontation with offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner during Sunday’s 42-37 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs and responded ‘Trade me let’s find out’ to a former Steelers staff member who tweeted Brown wouldn’t be the same player without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
His agent gave a statement the other day trying to put out the fire, citing that it was a non-story. It didn’t seem to help though. You can read his full comments below as cited by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was set to meet with Brown on Tuesday to discuss his absence and other issues surrounding the All-Pro receiver.
“I’m looking forward to visiting with him today and discussing (the absence) and some other things,” Tomlin said during his weekly news conference Tuesday per steelers.com. “I’m not going to get into the details of why he wasn’t here or whether or not he was excused. I just assume leave those things in-house. I understand so metimes you have some negativity. We lost a football game. There were some negative exchanges on the sideline. That’s frustrating, associated with not playing well and not winning. I understand all that. There are opportunities for us to respond to it, particularly in the early portions of the year, to utilize negative experiences that occur to educate our team at this point in the journey, so it becomes a non-factor as we move forward.”
Asked if Brown actually wants to be traded, Tomlin chuckled and said, “No.”
