Jan. 18 (UPI) — Antonio Brown personally insured each team in the AFC Championship Game would have plenty of motivational material this week.
With a single Facebook Live locker room session, Brown ignited a flame under the New England Patriots. During the video, filmed after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is heard dressing down the Patriots.
“When you get to this point in the journey, man, not a lot needs to be said,” Tomlin said in the now-deleted video. “Let’s say very little moving forward. Let’s start our preparations. We just spotted these [expletives] a day and a half. They played yesterday. Our game got moved to tonight. We’re going to touch down at 4 o’clock in the [expletives] morning. So be it. We’ll be ready for their [expletive]. But you ain’t got to tell them we’re coming. Keep a low profile, and let’s get ready to ball like this up again here in a few days and be right back at it. That’s our story.”
Brown has since apologized for the video, but that was after it was likely seen by millions.
An anonymous Patriots player texted Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman asking: “Why are we [expletives] when he’s doing the name-calling? Put the phone down, dude. That violates the trust of your teammates and coaches.”
Tom Brady also responded to the jab on his weekly radio appearance Monday.
“That’s against our team policy,” Brady told WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan Show. “I don’t think that would go over well with our coach.”
Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman fired another shot Monday on WEEI.
“That’s how that team is run,” Edelman said on the Ordway, Merloni, and Fauria Show. “I personally don’t think that would be something that would happen in our locker room, but hey, whatever. Some people like red and some people like blue. Some people like tulips and some people like roses. Whatever.”
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger acknowledged that he wants the Lombardi’s to do the talking. Roethlisberger has two Super Bowl victories.
“I don’t think I need to speak much [about the Steelers],” Roethlisberger told reporters Wednesday. “We have the trophies out there. We have owners that I think are the best in the business. They are family to us. And I am sure if he talked to his owner, he would say the same thing about the Rooney’s. Anybody in here or in the football world, or regular world, that know the Rooney’s, know who they are and what they stand for. It’s a blessing to call them family. I have played with guys that have come from other teams. They look shocked when they see our owners, whether it’s Mr. Dan Rooney or Mr. Art Rooney II, walking around the locker room and walking around practice. They don’t ever see their owners. We see our owners every single day. I think it’s just a blessing to know that they care about us, and that’s one of the reasons we want to go win. I am going to go meet with Mr. Dan Rooney here in a little bit. I do a weekly meeting with him. We just go down the week and see how it was, just because I want to talk to him. It’s a joy to play for him and win for them.”
Tomlin told the New England media that he was “embarrassed” by what the video showed.
“I was embarrassed by the language,” Tomlin said Wednesday in a conference call, via WEEI. “I take my role as a role model and the platform that we have in the National Football League very seriously, and as a parent, I’m just not into public displays of that type of language. “So I was more embarrassed about that element of it, not necessarily the content or the message in the video.”
The Steelers travel to Foxborough for a 6:40 p.m. kickoff against the Patriots Sunday at Gillette Stadium in the 2017 AFC Championship Game.
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