Tuesday 5 March 2019 17:50, UK
Antonio Brown has dropped another hint that he wants out of the Pittsburgh Steelers and claims Ben Roethlisberger acts like he owns the franchise.
Brown, one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, was benched by the Steelers in the final week of the regular season after reports emerged of an argument with veteran quarterback Roethlisberger during practice.
Brown has requested a trade since the end of the season, which saw the Steelers miss out on the playoffs, although his stance seemed briefly to have mellowed after a meeting with president Art Rooney II.
But he re-ignited the argument when he was part of an episode of HBO's The Shop on Friday, talking with the show's creator LeBron James and another NBA star Anthony Davis and admitting there was "too much smoke" for him to return to the team next season.
Brown opened up on the end-of-season problems in Pittsburgh but was particularly harsh when it came to the subject of Roethlisberger who has been a team-mate since he arrived in the NFL in 2010.
"The type of guy he is. He feels like he's the owner," Brown said when asked about an interception Roethlisberger threw against Denver last season and later blamed him for.
"Bro, you threw it to the defensive lineman. I'm over here wide open. You need to give me a better ball.
"You know, all you have to go do is call me out, we lose the game, he's like, damn, AB should have ran a better route.
"It's like one of those things where, it's the ego. I don't have an ego because like, bro, I'm just trying to win."
Brown also opened up on his absence during the final week of the season, adding: "I meet with Coach Tomlin, and I'm telling him like, 'Hey, man, I'm a little banged up, so I'm going to need a little time to get right'.
"So, he's like, 'If you're banged up, man, just, you know, you can just go home. Like, 'You ain't even got to be here.'
"I'm going to war for these guys, putting my life on the line, and it's like, it's an unknown when it comes to me just like right now, the write-ups. And it's like, you know what I mean, they control the narrative.
"They could just paint you any kind of way then. And that's the thing people don't know is it's a controlled environment to where they could kind of determine if they want to let me eat or not."
Follow all the news on www.skysports.com/NFL with updates, reports and expert analysis. Follow our Twitter account @SkySportsNFL to join in the conversation.
