– blogged by @LoveRubyWoo
Shortly after the Pittsburgh Steelers’ playoff win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, a video surfaced of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin speaking to his players in the locker room. In it, Tomlin was heard calling the Patriots, the team’s upcoming opponents in the AFC Championship, a**holes, and using other profanities to hype up his players.
The clip of Tomlin was inadvertently posted on Facebook Live by Steelers’ star wide receiver Antonio Brown as part of a 17 minute video showing the team’s post-game celebration. While Brown meant no harm by shooting the video, he ended up putting his coach on blast and it wasn’t long before almost a million people had seen Tomlin’s profanity-laced speech on his Facebook page. Brown ended up taking the post down the next morning, but enough people had already caught wind of it by then, including the Patriots.
“Hey, people have different rules,” Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman said regarding the video. “That’s how that team is run. I personally don’t think that would be something that would happen in our locker room, but hey whatever.”
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, Tomlin expressed his discontent with Brown’s decision to post the video on social media. “It was foolish of him to do that. It was selfish of him to do that, and it was inconsiderate of him to do that,” Tomlin said.
Tomlin added that he plans to discipline Brown for his actions, as he violated team policy. Furthermore, according to ESPN, Brown could face a minor fine from the NFL, as it is against the league’s social media policy to post anything between 90 minutes before a game to the time that postgame interviews are finished.
Ironically, Tomlin instructed his players on Sunday night to “keep a low profile”, but the buzz surrounding him and Brown have created the exact opposite type of atmosphere for the team going into this week. Hopefully, for the Steelers, this distraction can be put to rest soon and they can shift their focus on getting ready for their big game on Sunday against the Patriots.
