Tim Benz: The blame-shifting for — and enabling of — Antonio Brown

As you probably have heard by now, Antonio Brown was reportedly involved in a domestic dispute .

As you have also probably heard, it's the media's fault.

To be clear, Brown was not charged . No arrests were made as result of the police inquiry.

Which is exactly what the media entity that first reported the story — TMZ — stated in its post Tuesday.

Multiple times.

Which is what made the response from Brown's attorney so curious.

"The allegations are baseless and false," said Darren Heitner. "It's unfortunate that the media is trying to use distractions like this and prior stories in an effort to tarnish my client's name and reputation."

First of all, the media isn't trying to tarnish Brown's name or reputation. Brown is doing that all by himself.

And it's time for his lawyer, his friends, and his family to tell him that. Because blaming the public for discussing it won't slow the process.

It's not the media's job to promote Brown's brand. It's his job to protect it. And no amount of "work ethic in practice" will offset the road he is traveling right now.

It's entirely possible that the domestic allegations really are "baseless and false." At the very least, they weren't deemed significant enough to warrant an arrest or charges of any kind.

But the Hollywood (Fla.) Police Dept. confirmed to TMZ Sports that Brown "was involved in a domestic dispute."

Whatever prompted the police to investigate the case didn't involve a member of the media. Similarly, no one from TMZ was alleged to have helped Brown throw patio furniture off a balcony near bystanders. That's something else he is accused of doing.

No one from the Trib was driving him 100 mph down McKnight Road. None of the Pittsburgh TV stations hit "send" on Brown's phone when he made a physical threat to a reporter on Twitter.

Someone should remind Brown — and his lawyer — of those situations.

Brown is responsible for being accountable to society. The media isn't responsible to bury these allegations once they become public record.

What we've got here is a macro version of Brown's illogical meltdown back in June when he blamed the press for attention that was being paid to him via posts on his own social media accounts.

Or a macro version of when he got frustrated with the media for asking him questions about his own "Trade me let's find out" tweet back in September.

Steelers owner Art Rooney II once described these occasional AB news dumps as "minor annoyances." We've graduated beyond that description.

The Facebook Live stream simply made Mike Tomlin look bad. Celebration penalties only cost 15 yards at a time. Going AWOL this December just impacted football. Throwing a cooler merely wasted $10 of Gatorade.

Now the safety of others is potentially being compromised.

If Brown's lawyer wants the media to stop talking about his client, maybe he should advise his million-dollar meal ticket to stop being so darned unlucky and having bad stuff follow him around.

Or maybe he and other people "close to Brown" should remind him that he is responsible for his own actions. Because the longer they blame others, the more emboldened Brown becomes.

Brown's enablers blame Ben Roethlisberger's radio show for the receiver's absence. They blame Tomlin's coaching style for his frustration. They blame the players for voting JuJu Smith-Schuster team MVP.

Maybe Brown really is blameless in this latest incident. Unfortunately, to be convinced of that, I'm going to need something far better than his lawyer's default explanation to blame someone else.

I've seen that act too often already.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TimBenzPGH. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.