Antonio Brown is desperate to get out of Pittsburgh. But if it seems he is running in place in his quest, well, that’s a little on the nose.
The superstar wide receiver posted a video to Instagram Live on Monday night, while very sweaty and on an elliptical, in which he essentially begged teams to call him up if they were interested in a trade. Of course, the wideout is signed through 2021 and not a free agent, so that would be tampering.
“If your squad wants to win and your squad wants a hungry wide receiver who’s the best in the whole world, someone hit my phone,” said Brown, a week after formally requesting a trade from the Steelers. “Tell them I ain’t doing no un-guarantees. I ain’t even going to play myself no more for this NFL, you heard? I think I done everything. What y’all think? What’s left for me to do? Win a Super Bowl? Gotta be the right team for that, right? … If your team got guaranteed money, they want to get to know me and work with me, tell them to call me.”
Brown wants money and a new contract, along with a team with which he can win a Super Bowl, and finally, a new nickname: AB would prefer “Mr. Big Chest.” Unclear if that’s a bank or pec reference.
If Brown thinks his public pursuit of switching teams is strategic, there are teams that disagree. Peter King, in his “Football Morning in America” column, reported that with at least one team, Brown’s tweets and videos are affecting his value.
It’s also possible Brown doesn’t care, but he is burning every bridge that could have led to a Steelers reunion.