Antonio Brown Trade Saga Ends

Jon Gruden continues his trading in the league by acquiring former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown.  Brown is a 4-time NFL first team and 7-time Pro Bowl wide receiver.  Brown was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010 in the sixth round.  Since that time, he is the most accomplished sixth round wide receiver draft pick in NFL history.  Brown led the league twice in receiving yards in 2014 & 2017, twice in receptions in 2014 & 2015, and once in receiving touchdowns this past year with 15.  Brown was the first player in NFL history to record 1,000 receiving yards and 1,000 returning yards in the same season, this being in her second season in the league.

Much of the trade drama between Antonio Brown surfaced through Twitter.  Much of the trade talks and drama could be tracked through AB and several NFL analysts’ Twitter feed.  In February of this year, Antonio Brown’s agent informed the Steelers organization that he wishes to be traded to another team, using this following tweet.

The above tweet is from Antonio (AB) on February 12, 2019 as a farewell to Steelers fans.  This tweet surfaced before news surfaced of his trade request, causing NFL fans on Twitter to go crazy.  From February 12th to today, Antonio Brown has been one of the league’s headliners.  Following his trade requests, many replies and tweets from AB came out describing how bad teammates were, especially Ben Roethlisberger.

These tweets showed AB’s personal distrust in both the organization and other players in the locker room.  Brown had bad blood between other players and the organization, which caused his request for trade.  Just four days following his quasi-request for trade tweet, Brown posted this tweet:

Art Rooney requested a meeting with Brown following his trade request.  This tweet was posted immediately following the meeting.  The writing was no longer on the wall, it was official, the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to trade Antonio Brown.   For the next few weeks, league analysts mulled over where Brown would be traded to.  Until March 7, there was only potential landing spots.  March 7th brought us AB’s trade.  His trade was announced:

Followed by:

And:

Within a 6 hour span, the AFC East was shaken up by solid reports that the Buffalo Bills would receive Antonio Brown in a trade.  Brown would not budge and would not go to Buffalo.  By morning, any trade agreement that was supposedly reached overnight ceased to to exist.  Antonio Brown was once again, even though he had always been to this time, a Steeler.

The false report of the Antonio Brown trade again added fuel to the fire which was the AB trading saga.  This saga came to an end on the night of March 9th into March 10th.  The following was posted overnight:

The trade is not yet finalized, but all parties have signed agreements that when free agency opens on March 13th, the trade will be final.  The trade talks have only been about 4 weeks long, but has felt like a year.  The trade is done and now Antonio Brown will be catching passes in Oakland.

For Steelers fans one of the best wide receivers in our lifetime has been traded, but not all is lost.  Juju is coming to the rescue.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *