Bouchette: Antonio Brown Left Steelers Three Times In 2018

[Shoes]

We know Antonio Brown went AWOL on the Pittsburgh Steelers during the final week of the regular season, some sort of argument and frustration boiling over that’s led us to where the team is now, filled to the brim with drama. But according to Ed Bouchette, appearing on the Dan Patrick Show Monday morning, it wasn’t the first time Brown left the team.
As tweeted out by one of the show assistant Andrew Perloff, Bouchette says Brown left the team in training camp and once more following the ugly loss to Kansas City.

https://steelersdepot.com/2019/02/bo...times-in-2018/

[86WARD]

“Leaving the team before the media arrives” isn’t really leaving the team though...

[Mojouw]

Ok. Everyone tells me I'm hard on the Pittsburgh reporters. But this is a total case in point. If this was such a big deal, why didn't Bouchette or anyone else run it down at the time? I get from the post that the Steelers Depot folks put together that some reporters kinda sorta did, but it does not appear that anyone (especially Bouchette) really tried to get the specifics of all this pinned down.

It isn't like they are reporting on a Mexican drug cartel. How hard can it be to look into whether a player was AWOL or not? At this point I figure it boils down to 3 things:

1. AB isn't a reliable person and likely did peace out when he shouldn't have.
2. Bouchette has valid reasons for not liking AB and also has a professional reason for getting bad AB stories out there.
3. If Bouchette knew this prior to Week 17, where was the story?

Long story short, these are two dudes who don't like each other and neither one appears to be highly reliable source of information. That being said, I don't doubt it.

[BlackAndGold]

Bouchette wants AB gone so bad lol.

I'm to the point where I'm done with AB also but man if he doesn't get traded that first interview between those two would be a fun watch.

[AtlantaDan]

Ok. Everyone tells me I'm hard on the Pittsburgh reporters. But this is a total case in point. If this was such a big deal, why didn't Bouchette or anyone else run it down at the time? I get from the post that the Steelers Depot folks put together that some reporters kinda sorta did, but it does not appear that anyone (especially Bouchette) really tried to get the specifics of all this pinned down.

It isn't like they are reporting on a Mexican drug cartel. How hard can it be to look into whether a player was AWOL or not? At this point I figure it boils down to 3 things:

1. AB isn't a reliable person and likely did peace out when he shouldn't have.
2. Bouchette has valid reasons for not liking AB and also has a professional reason for getting bad AB stories out there.
3. If Bouchette knew this prior to Week 17, where was the story?

Long story short, these are two dudes who don't like each other and neither one appears to be highly reliable source of information. That being said, I don't doubt it.

We are not dealing with Woodward & Bernstein here, but of course their claim to fame took about 9 months after their reporting started before the coverup blew.

Far more important scandals than this covered by news organizations with much greater resources have experienced delays in being disclosed. A credible publication presumably requires credible sources before anything can be reliably reported.

It is not as if Bouchette is covering a government organization and can file an open records request or a large organization containing numerous potential whistleblowers with the motivation to blow something up (Woodward & Bernstein's Deep Throat was a senior FBI official who was pissed off he did not get the Director job after Hoover died).

As far as running it down, you are dealing with a very small group of potential sources (players, coaches, front office personnel), all of whom had an incentive to keep the leaky boat afloat during the season. The cover story of AB rehabbing a knee injury in week 17 held until the Steelers were eliminated, at which point Dulac and Bouchette had the sources to report the day after the season ended what was going on with AB in the run up to the Bengals game.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...s/201812310108

Probably the same sources who told Bouchette about the week 17 cluster told him after the end of the season what actually was going on during training camp and after the Chiefs game now that those sources are seriously pissed off at AB and there is no longer the same interest in underplaying any problems or any drive to the playoffs to avoid disrupting.

Everything is now being viewed from the perspective of a season that crashed and burned. If the Steelers had won the Super Bowl AB allegedly leaving the team after the Chiefs game probably would be portrayed as showing his commitment to winning, as was the case when it came out that Joe Greene threatened to leave the Steelers in late November 1974 after a bitter loss before that first Super Bowl season turned around.

[pczach]

We are not dealing with Woodward & Bernstein here, but of course their claim to fame took about 9 months after their reporting started before the coverup blew.

Far more important scandals than this covered by news organizations with much greater resources have experienced delays in being disclosed. A credible publication presumably requires credible sources before anything can be reliably reported.

It is not as if Bouchette is covering a government organization and can file an open records request or a large organization containing numerous potential whistleblowers with the motivation to blow something up (Woodward & Bernstein's Deep Throat was a senior FBI official who was pissed off he did not get the Director job after Hoover died).

As far as running it down, you are dealing with a very small group of potential sources (players, coaches, front office personnel), all of whom had an incentive to keep the leaky boat afloat during the season. The cover story of AB rehabbing a knee injury in week 17 held until the Steelers were eliminated, at which point Dulac and Bouchette had the sources to report the day after the season ended what was going on with AB in the run up to the Bengals game.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...s/201812310108

Probably the same sources who told Bouchette about the week 17 cluster told him after the end of the season what actually was going on during training camp and after the Chiefs game now that those sources are seriously pissed off at AB and there is no longer the same interest in underplaying any problems or any drive to the playoffs to avoid disrupting.

Everything is now being viewed from the perspective of a season that crashed and burned. If the Steelers had won the Super Bowl AB allegedly leaving the team after the Chiefs game probably would be portrayed as showing his commitment to winning, as was the case when it came out that Joe Greene threatened to leave the Steelers in late November 1974 after a bitter loss before that first Super Bowl season turned around.

Those are pretty reasonable explanations for the delay.

It is the expectation of information that is so infuriating to so many fans. The fact of the matter is that we are not talking about earth shattering subject matter here.

If AB doesn't want to tell us anything...or completely lie to us about what happened....he can.

If the team doesn't want to divulge any additional information to the media or to the fans.....they can. There will be no subpoenas or immunity. There is nothing that important and no laws have been broken that we know of.

I guess they can all tell us to go pound sand. Whether we like it or not, or whether anyone is able to uncover the truth or not.....but sooner or later....it will all come out. Only the Patriots and the NFL can cover up something as big as the taping and cheating incidents by destroying all the evidence and a vow of silence to protect the integrity of the game.

[Mojouw]

We are not dealing with Woodward & Bernstein here, but of course their claim to fame took about 9 months after their reporting started before the coverup blew.

Far more important scandals than this covered by news organizations with much greater resources have experienced delays in being disclosed. A credible publication presumably requires credible sources before anything can be reliably reported.

It is not as if Bouchette is covering a government organization and can file an open records request or a large organization containing numerous potential whistleblowers with the motivation to blow something up (Woodward & Bernstein's Deep Throat was a senior FBI official who was pissed off he did not get the Director job after Hoover died).

As far as running it down, you are dealing with a very small group of potential sources (players, coaches, front office personnel), all of whom had an incentive to keep the leaky boat afloat during the season. The cover story of AB rehabbing a knee injury in week 17 held until the Steelers were eliminated, at which point Dulac and Bouchette had the sources to report the day after the season ended what was going on with AB in the run up to the Bengals game.

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/...s/201812310108

Probably the same sources who told Bouchette about the week 17 cluster told him after the end of the season what actually was going on during training camp and after the Chiefs game now that those sources are seriously pissed off at AB and there is no longer the same interest in underplaying any problems or any drive to the playoffs to avoid disrupting.

Everything is now being viewed from the perspective of a season that crashed and burned. If the Steelers had won the Super Bowl AB allegedly leaving the team after the Chiefs game probably would be portrayed as showing his commitment to winning, as was the case when it came out that Joe Greene threatened to leave the Steelers in late November 1974 after a bitter loss before that first Super Bowl season turned around.

That's a good set of points and summary of the situation. I will only offer this in response...why is that Bouchette and others claim to know for sure now what is and has been going on, but didn't have a clue before? It leads me to be a bit suspicious when these guys claim to "have" the story.

[DesertSteel]

Does everyone think that a reporter always prints everything he knows at the time he knows it? I realize people are conditioned to knee jerk reporting, but sometimes there are reasons to hold back on something or maybe the picture doesn't become clear until the behavior is repeated.

I'm not as cynical as some of you.

[AtlantaDan]

That's a good set of points and summary of the situation. I will only offer this in response...why is that Bouchette and others claim to know for sure now what is and has been going on, but didn't have a clue before? It leads me to be a bit suspicious when these guys claim to "have" the story.

Probably depends how much he trusts his sources. If they were the same ones who were the sources for the AB walking out in week 17 story I would guess they gained some credibility with Bouchette by being right on the major points there along with whatever correct information they had provided in the past.

But that gets back to whether one or more of those sources lied to Bouchette when (if?) asked about the training camp and after the KC game AB absences previously. Maybe they just would not make a direct comment about those issues during the season, as was the case when Jim Wexell posted this, on the morning of December 31, about the week 17 AB mess right before Dulac and Bouchette broke the story

Now, this could just be media babble about something that's not there, but there hasn't been any news leaked about Brown's mysterious injury this week. Offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner first raised eyebrows with an overly defensive response to a simple question on Thursday. Fichtner rarely, if ever, flashes anger, but he did in telling a reporter he was not going to say another word about Brown.

And then Brown didn't show up for Friday's practice. We were told he was away getting tests. The one word a reliable source used when I asked about Brown's knee wasn't "injury." Instead, it was "crickets." The source said that, shook his head, and got away from me as quickly as possible.

Odd.

https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh...ire-127080478/

Does everyone think that a reporter always prints everything he knows at the time he knows it? I realize people are conditioned to knee jerk reporting, but sometimes there are reasons to hold back on something or maybe the picture doesn't become clear until the behavior is repeated.

I'm not as cynical as some of you.

My guess is good reporters post it when they believe they have a properly sourced significant story (and some folks like Ian Rapoport tweet it when they don't) given that you can get beat online by someone else.

AB had acted out enough before this season that I doubt someone like Bouchette would sit on a story he thought he had nailed down because AB was a first time offender. AB walking out of training camp or leaving the team in week two would have been legitimate news as part of a continuing pattern of acting out.

And from a competitive standpoint, if he had that story nailed down Bouchette probably is tired of Steelers news being broken first by national reporters like Fowler, Schefter and LaCanfora.