Brown upset, lashes out with a ‘Trade me’ tweet
Monday, so Brown surely must have meant something by it.
Drew Rosenhaus, Brown’s agent who was at the game and trying to calm his client down afterward, did not respond to a text message asking him if Brown wanted to be traded.
Bovada, an online bookmaker, installed odds of whether the Steelers would deal Brown before the Oct. 30 trading deadline. The odds that they would were 12-1; that they would not, 1-15.
Brown did not appear in the Steelers locker room in the 45 minutes the media were permitted to conduct interviews there early Monday afternoon. No teammate criticized him for the tweet, and some declined to talk about it at all, including offensive captain Maurkice Pouncey, who rarely turns down interviews.
But they obviously heard about it.
“I don’t even worry about it, I don’t pay attention,” guard David DeCastro said. “Yeah, people hear about it, but what are you going to do?”
Cam Heyward, the defensive captain, gave Brown the benefit of the doubt.
“Scarpino is going on a rant. It doesn’t really matter. It’s not going to change the outcome. A.B. is a hell of a player, and I’m glad he plays for our team. It’s as simple as that. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone in the world.
“A.B. gives you 110 percent every single time. You don’t ever have to worry about that. That dude loves football. For anyone to question that … it’s beside the point.”
Brown has yet to crack 100 yards in the first two games of the season and was seen having an animated discussion with offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner Sunday on the sideline.
The player who led the NFL with 1,533 yards receiving in just 14 games last season and a 15.2 average per catch has 160 yards (8.9 yard average) in two games. JuJu Smith-Schuster leads the Steelers with 240 yards receiving with a 13.3-yard average. Tight end Jesse James is second with 198 and a teamhigh 24.8 yards per catch.
Coach Mike Tomlin dealt privately with Brown after he physically threatened a reporter on Twitter before the Steelers opener against Cleveland.
Linebacker Bud Dupree also got in a Twitter twister after the Steelers’ 42-37 loss to Kansas City Sunday at Heinz Field. In response to someone who profanely asked where he was all game, Dupree responded, “I was at your girl house laid up, wat you gone do,” according to a screencap.
Approached Monday, Dupree declined to talk.
“You’ve just got to ignore it,” he later said, according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler. “It’s hard, but that’s what you’ve got to do.”
DeCastro’s suggestion would be for his teammates to just stay off social media.
“I don’t know how people do it, to be honest,” DeCastro said. “I stay off it, I just avoid it because if I want to talk to someone I’ll talk to him. I’ll communicate face to face with him, I don’t even try to text him. It’s a weird way of communicating. It’s a weird path society’s going down.
“Everyone thinks their opinion matters. They give advice to people. I don’t understand it, I really don’t. Maybe I’m just a weirdo. I don’t get distracted at all because I don’t listen to it . ...
“I always thought the game was really important. I love the game.”
Others apparently prefer the circus.