Mike Tomlin, the longtime Pittsburgh Steelers head coach, spoke about whether former malcontent wide receiver Antonio Brown would be welcomed back on the team.
Brown, the outcast wide receiver who has compiled one of the greatest careers in NFL history, has been on a national apology tour where he has articulated contrition for his past behavior. Most particularly, Brown apologized to the Steelers and their superstar quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Within the span of about six months in 2018 and 2019, Brown got himself excommunicated by three different NFL franchises and alienated a fourth team, the New Orleans Saints, who brought Brown in for a tryout. But now Brown says he feels bad about how he treated so many people in his past.
In fact, Brown told “Big Ben” that he “didn’t know how good I had it” as a nine-year member of the Steelers.
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Despite the mea culpa, a lot of bad blood still exists between Tomlin and Brown for how he publicly trashed his former coach and QB, then demanded a trade from the Steelers.
Therefore, when Tomlin was asked by Stephen A. Smith on ESPN’s “First Take” about the chances of Brown’s return to the Steelers, the Super Bowl-winning coach responded:
“I’ll say this: once a Steeler, always a Steeler. We had great success over the course of nine-plus years with Antonio. We’re always going to be interested in his growth and development as a man, and we’ll be open to assisting him in that, but we have no current business interest at this time.”
Check out the Tomlin interview in full below:
