Contract signed, Steelers star Brown focused on Super Bowl

Art Rooney II began the groundwork on making Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown a part of the organization “for life” last summer.

The team’s longtime president pulled his occasionally eccentric star aside and promised that rewarding Brown for his recordbreaking work would be a top priority in 2017.

“Once he gives you his word, he sticks to his word,” Brown said. And then some. The Steelers made Brown the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL when they signed him to a five-year deal worth more than US$72 million on Monday night. It was an emphatic vote of confidence that the 28-yearold can extend his prime well into his 30s for a team that believes the window to a championship remains open so long as Brown is out there chasing down passes from Ben Roethlisberger. “He’s one of the hardestworking players we’ve ever had on our team,” Rooney said on Tuesday. “He leads by example.”

Yet for all of Brown’s gaudy numbers, including an NFLhigh 632 receptions since breaking into the league as a rookie in 2010, his resume is lacking in one very specific category: Super Bowl titles. It’s that pursuit - and not the riches that come along with being the most well-compensated person at what you do in the world that Brown insists will be his focus through 2021. And perhaps beyond.

“All the Steeler greats, all those guys have (rings),” Brown said.

Brown does not. There was a near-miss in 2010 when Pittsburgh fell to Green Bay in the Super Bowl, a team on which Brown was more developmental role player than unstoppable force. He played a far larger role in 2016, when the Steelers reached the AFC championship game.