Frustration is quietly building among some Pittsburgh Steelers teammates toward Antonio Brown. A former teammate certainly didn’t hold back on a very public forum.
Now an NFL analyst for ESPN, former longtime Steelers safety Ryan Clark relayed a anecdote from 2012 training camp during a segment on “SportsCenter” on Monday night.
Clark said that when it became apparent the Steelers were going to give Brown a big contract extension that week six-plus years ago, he told an unnamed strength coach, “When you give him money, you’re going to create a monster.”
The Steelers in July 2012 were attempting to come to an agreement on a contract extension with then-No. 1 receiver Mike Wallace. When it became clear that wasn’t going to happen, they then turned to Brown and did what for them is unprecedented before or since: gave a longterm contract extension to a non-quarterback who had two years remaining on his existing contract.
During the second day of that 2012 camp, Brown and the Steelers agreed on a five-year, $42.5 million contract that ran through the 2017 season.
“That day in practice, Antonio and I almost got into a fight,” Clark said on ESPN, “because he’s saying things at (defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau), screaming at Coach LeBeau, screaming at us defensively, saying, ‘Don’t touch me; I’m the franchise,’ this and that.”
Brown, incidentally, expressed dissatisfaction with that deal as soon as 2015; the Steelers, again, went out character to give him cleverly-disguised raises before the 2015 and 2016 seasons before the sides agreed to a new five-year, $72.7 million contract in February 2017.
Brown did not play during Sunday’s season-ending win against Cincinnati after he skipped Saturday’s walkthrough and left the team Wednesday, the NFL Network reported. He was not at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for the season-ending team meeting Monday.
Earlier this fall, another former teammate — Hines Ward — said on CBS Sports Radio he was “a little embarrassed” by Brown’s behavior when he yelled at assistant coaches on the sideline of a loss and then said “Trade me lets find out” in response to a post on Twitter.
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Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris at cadamski@tribweb.com or via Twitter @C_AdamskiTrib.
