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Vukovcan: In the End, Steelers Give In; Brown Wins

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As a parent you do everything possible to teach your kids that, in life, how you behave matters.

Kids shouldn’t be rewarded for acting up, crying to get their way and overall bad behavior.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened between the Steelers and Antonio Brown, who ended up getting his way.

The two-month circus finally ended this morning with Brown being traded to the Oakland Raiders for a bag of balls. That wasn’t the exact return but in reality that’s what it is.

After months of bizarre, embarrassing behavior, Brown sabotaged his value enough that the return for one of best receivers in football was only a third round and fifth round pick.

Shame on Kevin Colbert and the Steelers for giving in to the child and doing nothing to benefit the organization.

Not only did the team not receive anything of real value in return, they allowed Brown’s damaging acts to be rewarded and showed future Steelers that if you’re upset just act foolishly long enough and you’ll eventually get your way.

I’m on record saying that if a team isn’t willing to provide you with proper compensation for Brown, you’d be better of keeping him and telling him to stay away from the team. If he’s going to count against your cap anyway, wait for a team to give you what Brown’s worth.

Sorry, but a 3rd and 5th round pick isn’t proper value and is basically just a player dump. Colbert is on record as saying he wouldn’t do that and that’s exactly what he did.

For those that feel Brown got punished by ending up with one of the worst franchises in football you’re wrong and you’re giving him too much credit.

Brown doesn’t care about winning and only cares about himself and money. Over the last two months, his brand has grown and he will be one of the most talked about players in the NFL this season. More importantly for “Mr. Big Chest”, he got a $12 million raise and became the highest paid receiver in football.

Yep, that’s right. Brown quit on an organization that paid him very handsomely before he actually earned it. Acted like a fool on social media for months and in the end you come out on top of the deal.

Unfortunately for the Steelers that’s what happened but it’s time to move on from both Brown and Le’Veon Bell.

The only thing that’s been gained for the team is the removal of two cancerous, me-first players from the organization. Despite the immense talent of both these players, the Steelers got nowhere in the playoffs with them–which is somewhat telling.

That frustrating era is now over and it’s now time for Colbert and Mike Tomlin to try and restock the roster with new blood and try to make another run in the AFC.

Hopefully this becomes a lesson learned that while talent is important, so is having a locker room filled with character and good citizens; two adjectives not associated often with Bell and Brown.

Today starts a new chapter for Steelers football. Let’s see if it’s one that we talk about for their on-field success more than the embarrassments off of it.