Steelers’ Brown works hard
PITTSBURGH» Even as he sat in the back of a police car sprinting to the hospital to get a precise prognosis on his injured left calf while the Pittsburgh Steelers played on without him during a loss to New England three weeks ago, Antonio Brown believed he would be back.
When his teammates provided it by assuring the AFC North champions of a first-round bye, Brown pushed his rehab.
Video recently surfaced of Brown working out in Florida with former NFL receiver Chad Ochocinco.
And there Brown was on Monday, going through drills with the rest of the Steelers well on track for a return on Sunday against Jacksonville in the divisional round of the playoffs.
“I never count myself out regardless of circumstances,” Brown said. “I know playing football you’re going to have adversity. Just got to grow from it.”
While stressing he’s “still got a lot to test,” the only unanimous selection on the 2017 all-pro team and the only player in NFL history with five straight seasons with at least 100 receptions appeared to be relatively close to his old self.
“A.B. is nice,” cornerback Joe Haden said. “If he’s out there, I expect him to be A.B. He’s not going to be out there limping around. When he was running, he looked pretty good. You never know how it’s going to feel afterward, but while he’s out there, while he’s running his routes, he looked like A.B.”
On the other side of the AFC bracket, go ahead and pick against the Tennessee Titans. Count them out against the New England Patriots or call them the ugliest team left in the NFL playoffs.
A franchise two years removed from the NFL’s worst record over a twoseason stretch cares only about winning.
The Titans went 5-27 between 2014 and 2015, costing Ken Whisenhunt his job after 23 games. Mike Mularkey took over, and he’s now 21-21 after a stunning comeback for a 22-21 win at Kansas City in the wild-card.
Now they will visit New England on Saturday night for Tennessee’s first divisional playoff game since January 2009 and their first divisional road game since losing to the Patriots 17-14 in January 2004.