Black Monday was a bad day for the Pittsburgh Steelers and nobody got fired from the organization like many teams went through on this notorious day after the NFL season.
Reports surfaced stating that star wide receiver Antonio Brown didn’t miss Sunday’s contest against the Cincinnati Bengals because he was hurt, it was because he became a terrible teammate, fighting with Ben Roethlisberger in practice last week, then skipping the rest of the week’s practices.
Former Pittsburgh Steelers star Ryan Clark seems to believe it’s time for the franchise to move forward.
“When it comes to just being a good teammate, when it comes to just being supportive, understanding that you’re trying to achieve one goal, that doesn’t matter to him,” Clark said of Brown, in an appearance on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt. “What matters to him is 19 attempts, 14 catches, 185 yards, two touchdowns against the Saints. That’s what’s important to Antonio Brown.”
Clark thinks that the only solution is to trade Brown to a new franchise.
“This is about the fabric of the team,” Clark said. “This is about the guy that goes Facebook Live as your coach is talking and leaks information out of the locker room that never should be there, this is about the guy that publicly talks about not getting the ball or issues with the offensive coordinator, knocks over garbage cans or knocks over Gatorade bottles and cans because he doesn’t get the rock. At some point, when you’re an organization that’s built on team, organization that’s built on integrity, you have to show the rest of the locker room that. Will he be good going forward? Probably so. But you have to take that stand.”
“You’re saying shop him?” Van Pelt asked.
“You have to,” Clark said. “It’s time to go.”
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The Steelers trying to trade Brown with his current contract would be crippling to their cap, which would be in the excess of $21 million. The Steelers could trade him after June 1 and reduce the cap charge to $7.04 million, with $14.08 million hitting the cap in 2019.
