Written by Frank Schwab at YahooSports.com
The scene in Pittsburgh on Wednesday was strange, considering what was going on.
Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Antonio Brown made a mistake. It was silly and harmless, nothing that he should be a permanent mark on his football resume. He got caught up in the moment of winning a playoff game, turned on his cell phone and broadcast video from the Steelers’ locker room. The video caught coach Mike Tomlin’s postgame speech, in which he didn’t give away any state secrets. In the grand scheme of things, what damage did it cause? That it violated the NFL’s social media policy rule that no fan cares about?
But this became a four-day story, and counting. On Wednesday evening, in front of a packed Steelers media room, one of the best players in the NFL answered serious question after serious question about something that isn’t a serious issue. He didn’t commit a crime. He got caught up in an exciting moment and do what plenty of people his age and younger like to do: He wanted to share his excitement on social media.
He answered media questions on Wednesday about it for 12 minutes. It was broadcast live on NFL Network. His news conference seemed like a form of punishment.
Brown didn’t have any excitement in his voice and rarely smiled. He talked about regretting causing a distraction and any disrespect shown to Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.
“We’re not all perfect. I’m human. I’m going to make mistakes,” Brown said. “As a man, I’m going to own up to those mistakes. I was genuinely excited in that moment.”
Again, it’s over a Facebook Live video shot because he was excited to win a playoff game.
He was asked if he felt he let down Tomlin, and what the conversation was like, like he was a child. He was asked if Ben Roethlisberger was disappointed with him, which is weird too. It felt like he was on trial, over something that might be comparable to a parking citation. And probably not as serious as a parking citation.
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