Antonio Brown learns it is one thing to trash a local P-G writer who is dependent on access to the Steelers and cannot fire back but quite another matter to go after a ESPN writer who does not need to deal with the Steelers on a regular basis
Last week Jesse Washington of The Undefeated published a story about Antonio Brown of the Steelers. It’s at once an especially 2018 kind of profile—the word “Instagram” appears 24 times, there are another three “’Grams,” and a further seven embedded Instagram posts—and a weirdly dissonant, pearl-clutchy story, in that its big scandal seems to be that a millennial uses Instagram to paint an unrealistically rosy picture of their life....
But once you get past Washington’s fixation on his discovery that Instagram is an unreliable source of biographical information, there are juicy details in there to suggest that Antonio Brown might be a dick. Washington has him as a disloyal lover, and possibly a deadbeat dad, and certainly as someone who has burned former business associates and made his share of enemies. Brown, who is here depicted as image-obsessed and Extremely Online, of course was not real happy about it.
"@jessewashington wait to I see you bro we gone see what your jaw like."
That was Brown tweeting a threat at Washington on the day the story was published. The tweet was, of course, deleted, but not before Washington grabbed a screenshot and tweeted it out to his 10,000 or so followers (also now deleted), because he is himself an online being and this is just the way it goes in our hell dimension.
https://deadspin.com/antonio-brown-a...n-w-1829016947
Jacob Klinger of pennlive.com asked Tomlin for his reaction to Brown’s tweet....
Tomlin basically blew off the question, saying, in part, “We could talk all day about things that are online or on the Internet or on social media. I just choose to stay away from it because it's a waste of my time."....
A few hours later, team president Art Rooney II and Brown issued statements to the Post-Gazette.
Rooney’s went like this: “It is never OK for any employee of the Steelers organization – player, coach or front office staff – to threaten a member of the media or anyone else for that matter. I appreciate that Antonio is apologizing for his inappropriate comments.”
Indeed, Brown was apologizing, via this statement: “I made a mistake in judgment with my tweet last week, and I apologize for that. It is not OK to threaten anyone and I need to be better spiritually and professionally. Though I do not agree with the negative parts of the story about my personal life, I need to have better control over my actions to use social media as a way to engage with my fans, rather than use it improperly.”
http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/j...s/201809120241
So much for less drama in 2018 - AJR II has to be getting tired of this and presumably is not pleased he had to step up (following a call with the league office asking WTF?) after Tomlin botched his response.
Props to AB for drawing page hits and additional coverage of a story that he did not like by acting out on twitter about it - well played.
I miss the good old days of 70s media coverage when all I knew about the Steelers off the field activities was another Bradshaw marriage crashing while Ernie Holmes got arrested for shooting at a police helicopter or possessing cocaine.