The once-viral Facebook live video (before it was removed) posted by Antonio Brown in the minutes following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ victory Sunday over the Kansas City Chiefs has been dismissed by New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and shrugged off by Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower.
But Steelers head coach — the man throwing the salty bombs in the video — had a few serious things to say about it in his meeting with the media on Tuesday.
Mike Tomlin calls Antonio Brown's FB Live video "the elephant in the room" and straight off, apologizes for his language. Says "regrettable"
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) January 17, 2017
Tomlin then admonished Brown for posting it.
"It was foolish of him to do that, it was selfish of him to do that, and it was inconsiderate of him," Mike Tomlin says of Brown's video.
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) January 17, 2017
Mike Tomlin says, "We will punish him, we won't punish us." Says, "He's gotta grow from this." Says his talent and work ethic get undermined
— Aditi Kinkhabwala (@AKinkhabwala) January 17, 2017
A few interesting things here. Tomlin’s apology for his locker room language wasn’t a surprise, even though he didn’t really have to. After all, this was what he thought was a private meeting with his team, congratulating the players for their huge effort in a hard-fought game. Besides, Tomlin made sure to remind the players not to be on social media, which made this whole thing all the more ridiculous — Brown kept taping for 13 minutes after Tomlin’s warning.
That’s what had to make the coach so mad. And that’s why you hear him lashing out at his star receiver publicly. We are surprised Tomlin hasn’t yet spoken to Brown, but as the team got back late Monday morning and have been in catch-up mode, there is a logical and logistical explanation for that.
But did Tomlin suggest that Brown’s move might have jeopardized his chances of landing a lucrative contract, as has been expected, and remain with the team long term? Certainly it wasn’t that serious an offense … we assumed.
Tomlin: That's often why you see great players move from team to team. Don't want that to happen to Antonio Brown.
— Ed Bouchette (@EdBouchette) January 17, 2017
For now, read this as Tomlin coming in hard on Brown as an example to the rest of the team. Brown might have heard Tomlin’s message in the locker room, but he clearly wasn’t listening. And perhaps that’s the biggest message now that Tomlin is trying to get across: We need to be razor sharp this week in facing the Patriots and pay attention to every little detail.
And Tomlin wasn’t afraid to call out of one his star players in order to get that message heard loud and clear — by everyone.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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