Coach scolds WR Brown for tantrum
Tomlin did note that the game against the Ravens was a big and emotional one and that Brown “is a competitor, we all know that. It aids him, it aids us.” A good example came in the division deciding Immaculate Extension touchdown by Brown against the Ravens on Christmas 2016. Or his leaping 38-yard reception over three defenders that clinched the Steelers 3-point victory in Cleveland to start this season.
But Tom line added, “Hopefully he’s learned a lesson” from Sunday, and that others are watching him set examples.
“We got young people on our team; they need to be taught good things, good lessons, ways to conduct themselves as professionals.
“He made a mistake. I’m sure he’s ready to move on from it.”
This is not the first time Brown has thrown fits on the field or on the sideline for not getting the ball. As Tomlin put it Tuesday, “This is not Antonio’s first rodeo.” There also was Brown’s Facebook Live stint in the locker room after their playoff victory in Kansas City last season that incensed the coach.
But much of that has been explained away as Antonio being Antonio, as Steelers president Art Rooney II pretty much did in January. He called Brown’s antics “little annoyances, with the emphasis on little” and added that “Antonio is a good guy, a good person. I enjoy him personally. He’s someone his teammates like to have on the team.”
Rooney signed Brown to a five-year, $72.7 million contract a month later.
It sounded Tuesday, though, that at least one of those teammates is getting fed up with the annoyances, and the coach sided with his quarterback.
“I’m not going to waste a lot of time talking to Antonio about not throwing water coolers and so forth,” Tomlin said. “Be a professional.”
• Tomlin was expansive and instructive Tuesday on other matters at his news conference. Here are some of them:
• In light of what happened to Le’Veon Bell last season when he was forced to leave the AFC championship with a groin injury that required surgery after an extraordinary number of carries and receptions in 2016, Tomlin was asked about his 35 runs Sunday.
“It is something that is continually monitored. When we choose to utilize him in the ways that we did last week, it’s a conscious decision.”
• Tomlin said he made Eli Rogers inactive Sunday because he fumbled a punt in Chicago the previous week. Rogers not only had been their punt returner through three games, he was their slot receiver all last season and this until the Baltimore game.
“Like I told him a week ago, it’s not a firing, it’s a recentering if you will.”
• The Steelers are tied for the NFL lead with 316 penalty yards and second with 37 penalties, but Tomlin said the eight charged against his team in Baltimore for 60 yards did not bother him so much because it was referee Walt Anderson’s crew.
“It’s a wide-known fact that that group throws more penalties than most crews in football,’’ Tomlin noted.
• There were no new injuries from the Ravens game but Tomlin did not issue updates on two starters who missed the game in Baltimore with injuries, Marcus Gilbert and Mike Mitchell.