The 2022 NFL season is less than two months away, and Antonio Brown remains a free agent. It doesn’t seem like too many teams are going after the star wide receiver after he walked out on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the end of the 2021 season. But could Brown return to the Pittsburgh Steelers for one more run?
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin recently appeared on The Pivot podcast and was asked about a Brown homecoming. Tomlin said Brown has “moved on, and we’ve moved on.” He also noted that Brown to the Steelers is “not realistic,” per NFL.com.
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Brown became a superstar receiver for the Steelers. The 33-year-old was selected by the Steelers in the sixth round of the NFL Draft from Central Michigan. In his nine seasons with the Steelers, Brown led the NFL in receiving yards and receptions twice, he was named to the Pro Bowl seven times, was selected to the All-Pro Team five times and led the NFL in receiving touchdowns in 2018.
Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders (now Las Vegas Raiders) in 2019 but didn’t play one game for him due to multiple issues with the team. He was traded to the New England Patriots at the start of the 2019 season and played only one game for them due to allegations of sexual and personal misconduct. He didn’t play for the rest of the year and was suspended for the first eight weeks of the 2020 season. Brown signed with the Buccaneers midway through the 2020 season and helped the team win a Super Bowl. He was cut by the Buccaneers in January of this year after he walked off the field during the game against the New York Jets.
“What I’ll say about AB is this man, we had nine great years,” Tomlin said. “I appreciate that dude in ways I can’t explain to y’all. I won’t even bother to attempt to explain to y’all because it sounds like I’m defending him in some way. And to me, from that standpoint, the nature of our relationship and what we all did together requires no defense. You could digest it however you want to digest it. I don’t think enough gets said about the will of that dude. About the work ethic of that dude. About the fearlessness that he played the game.”
