Steelers Now
Antonio Brown‘s time with the Oakland Raiders wasn’t much more than a blink. After demanding the Pittsburgh Steelers trade him away, his chapter in silver and black didn’t even make it to the field.
Brown arrived to training camp in a hot air balloon, which was another quirky — if that’s the word for it — chapter in Brown’s short-lived tenure with Jon Gruden’s team in 2019. Of course, there was the frostbitten feet and helmet change debacle, as well.
“I didn’t even care. I’m OK with all of it,” Gruden said Wednesday on Cam Heyward’s “Not Just Football” podcast. “I said, ‘Shit, just get him to game day.’ I kept telling my guys, ‘We’re just gonna get him to Sunday. We’re gonna get this guy to Sunday.’ There are certain players — and you know this, right or wrong — that have a little bit bigger yard to play in than others. I just wanted to get around this guy, and try to build a relationship with him and bring him into our world a little bit, but he was, I think, distracted by other things.
“None of that stuff really bothered me. Don’t get me wrong, it concerned me quite a bit. I saw what he did in these OTAs, and I just had to get him to Sunday for the Raider Nation. I just knew he could be spectacular in our offense. But what a disappointment for me.”
The Raiders ended up releasing Brown after he refused to play for the team, which had fined him and voided the guaranteed money in his contract. He’d also gotten into a spat with then-Raiders general manager Mike Mayock over the fines, then was fined for that.
Gruden remembers how skilled Brown was. He still has practice film of him and offered to send it to Heyward. When Brown had gotten to his Oakland layover, he was the only player in NFL history to notch at least 100 grabs and 1,200 receiving yards in six straight go-rounds. It was easy to see why he’d done so well with the Steelers.
“When you talk about running routes, this guy could get out of it at top speed,” Gruden said. “I mean, he could go left or right or turn right back downhill at top speed, man. Almost like he was a double-jointed Martian or something, man. I loved the possibilities.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Jon Gruden Reveals Why He Ignored Antonio Brown’s Red Flags
