This is an amazing piece from Mike Freeman from Bleacher Report.
It breaks down how Antonio Brown with the Steelers saw how Ben Roethlisberger was treated and decided as a star player he should be treated the same.
Of course, Ben is a white QB and AB is a black WR, so the outcomes were totally different.
Brown was simply following in the footsteps of his quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, who had operated on an island for years under Tomlin. Roethlisberger wasn’t required to stay at the team hotel for home games like his teammates. He also openly criticized them on his local radio show and often ignored them by showing up late to team meetings. All with few repercussions from the Steelers.
Many players on the team had come to accept this. Brown, as well as star running back Le’Veon Bell, did not. Brown would openly tell teammates how Roethlisberger had his own set of rules while the receiver justified his own behavior over the past few years, according to current and former Steelers players. Brown ripped the 15-year veteran quarterback privately, too, once calling him, according to two team sources, “a fucking phony.”
When Roethlisberger started to make a habit of either showing up late to team meetings or just a few minutes before they began, Pittsburgh’s veteran leaders took notice. Most veterans were at the team complex early, sometimes an hour or more before a meeting started.
Not surprisingly, Roethlisberger’s tardiness became an issue for the team’s players council—a small group of veteran leaders that met away from coaches and the rest of the team to hash out problems among the players. Eventually, the council decided to address the issue with Roethlisberger, but before that happened, star safety Troy Polamalu informed Tomlin that they were going to talk with the quarterback.
Tomlin, however, informed Roethlisberger before the players could speak with him. The heads-up was seen by players as a massive breach of protocol and so severe that some players felt they could no longer trust their coach.
Everything that is being said about Roethlisberger is true.
He is a HOF QB, but he does have his own rules and Tomlin doesn’t do anything to police him.
Will be very interesting to see how the Steelers perform this year.
Flip the page for Brown speaking about Big Ben.