Former Steelers Star Antonio Brown Opens Up On Trauma With JuJu Smith-Schuster

The Pittsburgh Steelers were ripe with talent headed into the 2018 season. Coming off a tough loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars months prior, the team had something to prove with a young nucleus of players surrounding veteran Ben Roethlisberger. Two superstar receivers in Antonio Brown and JuJu Smith-Schuster were ready to continue to evolve as a receiving duo, and show the league what the Steelers could do. 

The Steelers, however, would come up just short on a late postseason push after losing to the New Orleans Saints in Week 17 and miss out on the playoffs. The tension that was building in the Steelers front office and Brown would reach his boiling point after the season, as that offseason, the team would move on from the All-Pro, and the rest is history. But for Brown however, that year would cause trauma that stayed with him for the rest of his professional career. This tension between Brown and Smith-Schuster has been discussed in the past, but during a recent interview with Jason Whitlock, Brown discussed the trauma it left behind on him in depth.

"I was getting too much scrutiny. Then they [Pittsburgh] brought another young receiver [Smith-Schuster], who they was making it seem like he could be what I am. Imagine the trauma, and that's why I started this. Imagine the trauma you got to deal with when you've been great for an organization for so long and now you're realizing they're trying to make somebody else you and they're trying to push you aside based on media writeups."

During the 2018 season, Smith-Schuster led the Steelers in the majority of receiving categories including receptions (111), yards (1,426), and yards after catch (617). Brown certainly helped in the development of Smith-Schuster by commanding double teams, but felt as though his consistency as a top receiver in the NFL was called into question due to the flashy young option in Smith-Schuster.

"I think in 2018, I had like 15 touchdowns, 1,200 yards, 100 catches. I think that was my sixth season doing it. And that's when I realized, you know, people don't really appreciate greatness. People these days in the NFL, when they see a young player that's being great and doing great things, it's just scrutinize on them right away. It's a takedown on them."

The Steelers and Antonio Brown

The NFL is a young man's league. Bringing in younger talent and consistently circulating them in with the veteran talent is the only way that team's survive and continue to keep a team's window of contention open for as long as possible. At the end of the 2018 season, Brown was a star for the Steelers. After the late season drama, Brown would be shipped off to the Las Vegas Raiders for draft capital before bouncing around a few other teams and making a dramatic exit with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that has left him in free agency since.

Though there are opinions on the departure of Brown from Pittsburgh, there is truth in Brown's words regarding the pressure young superstars can have on veterans. Despite multiple All-Pro seasons and MVP votes to Brown, there was less praise and more questions regarding his ability to play at a high level and whether his contract was worth keeping. 

Smith-Schuster was a rising star in Pittsburgh, but Brown was instrumental in helping him shine. Brown may say that he left Pittsburgh to pursue a championship, but with the recent discussion, the lack of recognition may have played a larger part in his departure than originally thought. 

How things were handled at the end between Brown and the Steelers may have it's scrutiny, but a lack of communication seems to be the ultimate culprit in the divorce of the two. Brown blames the rift in the locker room on external sources, while the explanation that most fans accept is that the drama in the locker room caused by Brown finally reached the point of no return. With multiple versions of the story, it's unclear whether fans may ever know what the true reason is, but it's important to remember that players have their own desires, regardless of what the team asks of them.

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