PITTSBURGH, PA -DECEMBER 16: Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown (84) looks on during the NFL football game between the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers on December 16, 2018 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA. (Photo by Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Antonio Brown isn’t a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers any longer, but he still thinks he’s entitled to rip JuJu Smith-Schuster via social media.
There will come a day when Antonio Brown shifts his focus from his old team, the Pittsburgh Steelers to his new team, the Oakland Raiders. Sunday was not that day. Instead, Brown continued to cause trouble for the Steelers by publicly criticizing JuJu Smith-Schuster on twitter.
Smith-Schuster is the receiver the Steelers want to take over Brown’s mantle as the No. 1 target for quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He was certainly a productive player in 2018. The former USC star racked up 111 catches for 1,426 yards and seven touchdowns. As a result of that production, his teammates named him the Steelers’ offensive MVP during Week 17.
Evidently Brown decided Smith-Schuster isn’t deserving of that accolade. He took to Twitter to point out that Smith-Schuster did have a crucial Week 16 fumble that cost the Steelers their chance to make a run in the postseason. Brown conveniently ignored the fact that he decided to sit the next game –with the playoffs still a possibility — after a disagreement with his coaching staff.
This outburst from Brown only makes the Steelers’ brass feel better about their decision to ship him out west this offseason. There’s no question about his on-field talent, but he clearly disrupted the Pittsburgh locker room in a major way. Head coach Mike Tomlin hopes that his team will experience addition by subtraction after Brown’s departure.
Interestingly, Smith-Schuster decided to take some semblance of the high road with his reaction to Brown. He went on his own Twitter account and urged people to “keep their emotions off the internet.” He didn’t mention Brown specifically, but it’s clear he was sending a message to his former teammate.
The real question here is when Brown will turn his attention to business with the Raiders. Jon Gruden and company certainly need 100 percent of his focus if they’re going to turn their team around in 2019. The sooner he stops thinking about the Steelers the better off the Raiders will be.