Keep it in the family, Steelers.
It's bad enough the season started by tying the Browns. Then came the home loss to the Chiefs. Seeing the 0-1-1 record is unavoidable, but we shouldn't know the things we know. We shouldn't read the quotes and tweets we've read.
Get it together already. Where is the leadership? It's not a starter or a backup on the depth chart. Instead, drama is running the show in Pittsburgh.
Head coach Mike Tomlin said he disciplined All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown. What exactly is the nature of that discipline? Maybe Brown will talk about it when he meets with the media Thursday.
On Sunday, CBS cameras found Brown arguing with offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner during the loss to the Chiefs. After the game, Brown ducked any questions, leaving the locker room before the media entered.
On Monday, Brown failed to show up for work, but he did manage to make noise with a tweet. A former Steelers public relations staffer wrote on Twitter that Brown was lucky to have been drafted by the Steelers and that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is the reason for Brown's success and his big-payday contract. Brown responded: "Trade me let's find out."
Trade me let’s find out https://t.co/4OeepI78zy
— Antonio Brown (@AB84) September 17, 2018
Brown's tweet took attention away from linebacker Bud Dupree's response to a fan on social media. A Twitter user who goes by the name Russ Dickson asked Dupree, "Where the f#*k were you all game?" Definitely not the nicest way to ask that question. Maybe fans don't even need to ask that question at all, but, at the same time, an NFL player can ignore this one. Not this time. Dupree responded via direct message. He told Dickson he was with Dickson's girlfriend, only Dupree used different words to describe it.
This comes a week after Pittsburgh's holdout running back Le'Veon Bell dropped a trolling tweet on his squad. When the Steelers, favorites to beat the winless wonder Browns, ended that game in a tie, Bell made a tiny statement. He dropped the monocle emoji as the lone character in the message.
In a subsequent tweet, Bell said he didn't mean to throw shade at the Steelers. He had never seen a tie before. (Really?) He wants a new contract. It doesn't seem to be happening. This week, he made the TMZ sports section riding a jet ski in Miami. A day later, the Steelers removed him from their active roster.
Days before the season opener, Bell's offensive linemen turned on him. They broke the locker room code. They spoke out against Bell's holdout. "He f---ed us," one veteran told ESPN.
Center Maurkice Pouncey and guard Ramon Foster put their names next to their comments. "It's Le'Veon over the Steelers, and we're the Steelers and we're going to play as the Steelers," Pouncey said.
"What do you do? Here’s a guy who doesn’t give a damn, I guess, so we’ll treat it as such. I just hate (that) it came to this," Foster said.
All of this is very un-Steeler-like. The organization has been a model of NFL success. Since Tomlin took over as the head coach in 2007, Pittsburgh has averaged 10.5 wins per year. They've won one Super Bowl, played in another and reached the playoffs in all but three years. Those non-playoff years have also been .500 or better seasons. (Forgive them for the lack of Super Bowls. To get there they have had to go through a field that has included the New England Patriots and Peyton Manning-led teams.) The Steelers haven't had a stinker of a season since 2003 when they finished 6-10. The next year they won the Super Bowl.
This is different, though. The disarray and distraction are nearly constant and losing only draws more attention to the dysfunction. Tomlin has to step in and change the direction in which the team is headed. If not, when people asked how the Steelers run ended, you'll know. It looks like everything described above.
