As an athlete, it is code to follow the philosophy of privacy in your team huddle. That wasn’t the case for Pittsburgh Steelers’ starting wide receiver Antonio Brown.
After the Steelers closed their AFC divisional win, Head Coach Mike Tomlin gathered the team together in the locker room. After briefly celebrating the win, Tomlin began a post-game speech.
According to Sports Illustrated, in his speech, Tomlin is quoted saying, “keep a low profile, let’s get ready to ball out and be cool on social media, this is about us.” Tomlin was also heard referring to the New England Patriots as “those a**holes.” From the beginning of Tomlin’s speech, Brown was logged into Facebook streaming the team and coach live on his phone.
The video was quickly deleted but that did not stop many of Antonio Brown’s fans from viewing it. In a later press conference, Tomlin gave his thoughts on the incident and indicated that Brown will face some type of punishment. Brown also ironically apologized for the incident on his Twitter account.
Brown tweeted, “It was wrong of me to do, against team and NFL policy, and I have apologized to Coach Tomlin and my teammates for my actions. I’m sorry to them for letting it become a distraction and something that they’ve had to answer questions about while we’re preparing for a big game on Sunday.”
Brown’s actions were a violation of the league’s social media policy. Brown was not suspended from any games but did receive some form of punishment. Coach Tomlin informed the team Brown would be fined $10,000 by the Steelers’ organization.
The next week the Steelers lost to the New England patriots 17-36 in the AFC Conference Championship game. Brown recorded only 77 yards on seven receptions.
Maybe the outcome would have been different had he listened to his coach.
