Antonio Brown's beef with Ben Roethlisberger was heated, sudden, and so avoidable

Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger made beautiful magic together as the league's most dynamic aerial connection for upwards of a half decade then all of a sudden the two Canton bounce superstars just couldn't play nice this is the inexplicably stupid history of their beef the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted Ben Roethlisberger 11th overall in 2004 and he provided immediate dividends taking over a starting quarterback in week three of his rookie season and setting an NFL record by winning each of his first 14 career starts in guiding his squad to the AFC Championship game he won Super Bowl extra-large for an encore becoming the only quarterback to ever hoist the Lombardi Trophy before blowing out 24 candles in the ensuing years he'd break every meaningful franchise passing record get a 9 figure contract extension and win another Super Bowl in February 2009 he was an established bona fide superstar going into his seventh season in 2010 when the Steelers used a sixth round pick on a little-known wide receiver out of central Michigan named Antonio Brown by year two he'd burst on the scene teaming with Mike Wallace to form one of the league's top receiving duo's leading to a lucrative five-year extension after just his second season once Wallace left for Miami in 2013 Brown and Benz set fire to the entire NFL and by the time that dust settled on the 2016 season Brown had posted the most prolific for year receiving stretch in the history of the game that led to another big-money extension ahead of the 2017 season which definitely seemed to cement his status as a Steeler for life the first few games that year were business as usual but then came a week for trip to Baltimore when Brown broke wide open for what would have been a huge third down play only for Big Ben to never even look his way Brown threw a temper tantrum taking his frustration out on this poor cooler then a couple days later when Ben was making his weekly radio appearance he threw his wideout under the bus for creating a needless distraction explaining that it's not like I intentionally didn't throw it to him I was doing what my reads tell me to do I don't even want to say I made a mistake because I was reading the side I was supposed to read it's just unfortunate that it happened and it's unfortunate that he acted and reacted that way you see over the years Roethlisberger has consistently gone on the radio and aired team dirty laundry on a public platform and it's pissed off a whole bunch of his white outs after Emanuel Sanders left Pittsburgh to sign with the Broncos he went out of his way to note how much better of a leader Peyton Manning was than Ben Roethlisberger and noted his discussions with Wallace on the topic of been calling teammates out on the radio said of being called me out on a radio show the next day I would literally walk up to him a locker on me say me like don't do that keep my name out of your mouth legendary Steelers wideout Hines Ward also voiced similar beliefs regarding Ben's leadership as it pertained to those radio segments you know I just think he has to take the initiative to kind of do more as a leader not just being able to call guys out on his radio show you don't have to air it out to the public where everyone can hear things were at least fine on the field throughout 2017 Brown notched his fifth consecutive all-pro season as the Steelers won 13 games and repeated his division champs but 2018 represented a huge fork in the road for the organization with Roethlisberger aging and star running back Le'Veon Bell on sabbatical their window to contend was diminishing they kicked off the season by failing to defeat a brown squad who had lost 34 of their previous 35 games so tension was already high when they welcomed Pat mahomes in the Chiefs to the big ketchup bottle near the goal line down 12 with just a couple minutes left Brown expected and wanted that touchdown but then had other plans and was able to scramble for the TD Brown was irritated even though his team yenna scored they'd ultimately come up short in about an hour and a half following the game a tweet from a former team PR employee threw gas on the fire when he intimated that Browns massive success was simply and exclusively due to the presence of the two-time Super Bowl champ delivering him although balls Brown responded with his first public acknowledgment to the world of his discontent in western Pennsylvania he'd delete that tweet but this is the internet where nothing is forever no putting that toothpaste back in the tube Roethlisberger tried to downplay the situation showering brown with praise and writing any antics off as a byproduct of his passion and burning desire to win they look to put this behind them and the team rebounded with a six-game winning streak providing a comfortable cushion in the AFC North leading into a week 12 game in Denver the Steelers were down a touchdown with just a minute left but this Roethlisberger scramble set them up with a first and goal on the doorstep of the goal line in what should have led to a game-tying score instead when Ben looked Browns way on this third down his toss was plucked out of the air by D lineman Shelby Harris as he's wont to do Ben took to the radio to publicly broadcast his blame of the whiteout and while he was at it voiced his belief that they should have just thrown four straight times to juju Smith's Shuster Brown shrugged it off as constructive criticism that he wasn't taking personally while Ben spoke to the media in front of his locker and dug in on his stance defending his unorthodox and antagonizing methods you have to know how to motivate different guys in different ways and I think that's part of being a leader being a captain sometimes you have to be honest with him and so I think that I've earned the right to be able to do that with as long as I've been here everything was falling apart and it showed on the field after that painful loss in Denver the Steelers dropped three of their next four putting themselves on the ropes and their playoff chances which looked like a certainty a month earlier on life support then all hell broke loose starting with the Wednesday leading up to that final game of the 2018 season former NFL wide receiver James Jones reported on NFL Network that Roethlisberger would consistently agitate Brown and it reached a boiling point when Brown allegedly ran the wrong route in a walk through practice and Ben demanded they replace him with someone else an irate brown then chucked the ball at Roethlisberger before storming out of practice hashing things out would also be tricky with the apparent lack of trust and respect brown had for a signal collar well head coach Mike Tomlin tried to excuse Browns absence by making up a phony knee injury there was no keeping a lid on this brewing circus Brown would go completely AWOL ahead of their biggest game of the season skipping the entire week of practice including a Saturday walkthrough and their team meeting that night yet he somehow was under the impression that he'd still take the field and play the next day and when he didn't he left the stadium at halftime they wound up missing the playoffs despite losing only two of their first 10 games just the fourth time that's been done since the NFL's 1978 expansion to a 16 game regular season Ben ven did his final radio segment of the season and while he said some nice things about his whiteout he also made sure to point out that Brown wasn't returning any of his texts or calls about seven weeks later things reached DEFCON 1 see Ben Roethlisberger had been accused of committing sexual assault both in 2008 as well as in 2010 and in mid-february Brown had liked a pair of tweets that alluded to been getting away with these despicable allegations if there were ever any chance before that these two could bury the hatchet and move forward this was the match that burned any and all remaining bridges between brown and his quarterback but Brown didn't stop there the very next day he took to social media to accuse Ben of having an owners mentality that he can call out anybody he pleases with no means of recourse anyone can take their GM Kevin Cole Burt was totally cool with it too even enabling that dynamic and alluded to Ben's 52 teammates as kids which only served to underscore and validate Browns point running back Le'Veon Bell fresh off signing a long-sought multi-year deal with the Jets explained that doing things Ben's way was tough and that management allowed him to become larger than the team the final straw came with the March 1st airing of an episode of the shop a talk show produced by LeBron James in which Brown executed a rapid-fire verbal assault on Ben oh yeah call me out we lose a game II like a bee should I ran a better route why would why we've been doing this type of guy he is you feel like he the owner brought you through the the very next day an interview with ESPN's Jeff Darlington aired in which he went in some been and their relationship I would have liked for me and being would it be cool you know I mean I thought we was cool but when I think I'd only been in his house one time he'd been in my house one time I mean we don't workout in the offseason it's like y'all we really want to win you think that's winning that's not winning that's not winning culture for Roethlisberger the man who was never bashful about speaking his mind and sparking controversy on the radio had pretty much gone totally silent with nothing left to do but sit and wait for the end to come and he didn't have to wait long a week later Browns wish for a divorce from Ben and the Steelers was granted when they flipped him to the Raiders problems that could have seemingly been hashed out behind closed doors were instead exacerbated when taken public been perceived to star wide receiver to be too hot-tempered erratic and sloppy ground thought the two rings one by his star quarterback somehow managed to make his head even bigger and felt slighted by a lack of respect from his QB while resenting the deference the organization showed to Ben things quickly spiraled out of control when the two were forced to coexist his teammates now that's ancient history Brown hasn't let his exit from Pittsburgh diminished any hard feelings whether toward his old quarterback GM or even fellow wideout juju Smith's Shuster anyway click here for more QB wide receiver beef and while you're at it check out the entire menu of exquisitely procured beef [Music]

Channel: Secret Base

Views: 2,733,792

Keywords: sb nation, sports, nfl, football, steelers, pittsburgh, antonio brown, ben roethlisberger, beef history, feud, rivalry, hate, lebron james, the shop, le'veon bell, juju smith-schuster, super bowl xl, afc north, oakland raiders, trade, tweet, radio, highlights, footage, 2017, 2018, interception, interview, ben roethlisberger antonio brown, hines ward, james jones, mike wallace, mike tomlin, practice

Id: iVn37ndpkIc

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/SirSquawck]

Ben's an asshole and AB is a diva. This was a nice summary of it all though

[u/[deleted]]

SB Nation is trash. Never patronize any of their services for the good of the sporting planet.

[u/southernsteelmc]

What a joke...WRs calling out Ben about his Radio show on radio and TV shows...stupid just keeps getting dummer