Cue The Drama

The wrong guy apologized. The guy in the wrong hasn’t said a word yet.

Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said he was sorry for referring to the New England Patriots with a profane term, and it’s big of him to say he shouldn’t have. Except, in a locker-room setting, it’s pretty much the industry standard. The locker room is no place for tender eardrums.

And no one should have known what Tomlin said – not outside of the folks he was addressing.

But as Tomlin warned his team to lay low on social media, wide receiver Antonio Brown was beaming the Steelers’ postgame celebration and Tomlin’s remarks to, well, the entire world. Via Facebook. Which not only violates every standard of locker rooms, but NFL policies on social media as well.
Some of Tomlin’s remarks revealed a jaundiced view of a gifted receiver who has had more than 100 receptions each of the last four years, a number of them marked by overly-theatrical gestures and punished by fines.

“You wear on your teammates when they routinely have to answer questions about things that aren’t preparation or football-related,” Tomlin said, adding: “He has to grow from this. He has to.”

Sadly, he probably doesn’t. His lack of personal responsibility will not offset his talent on the field … until the day that it does, and that time is far off. Playing the way he does, some team would happily take him if the Steelers backed away.

But here are the Steelers, about to hit the road for New England to play the Patriots for the right to go to the Super Bowl, and the conversation is about the immaturity of a 28-year-old whose contract is worth nearly $42 million. Tomlin can apologize for his choice of words, far worse of which are routinely said and heard in locker rooms, but the fault here lies with Brown.

“I personally don’t think that would be something that would happen in our locker room,” Patriots receiver Julian Edelman observed.

Yeah, the Patriots have never been involved in any video scandals. But when your coach deliberately mixes up the names of various social media – Bill Belichick often refers to Snapface and InstantChat – you get the picture. A very big picture. One Antonio Brown needs to see.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman