I’m not a bandwagon jumper. I was loyal to the Pittsburgh Pirates back when they were in the midst of yet another losing 90+ loss season just like I was loyal to the Penguins in the years B.C. (Before Crosby). Admittedly, the fact they offered Student Rush tickets to us poor college kids may or may not have had something to do with that. Point is, I stuck with those teams because even though they weren’t very good, they were my hometown teams. And I also stuck with them because while they may have not have been talented, they were comprised of decent guys who tried their best.
Well, maybe not the Pens the year they won the Sid Sweepstakes…
Which brings us to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I made the point last year that being bad is one thing, being tough to root for is quite another. Now I have no idea of this year’s team is one the precipice of turning the season around or if they’re destined for yet another miserable playoff-less campaign. What I do know is it’d be a whole lot easier to root for them win or lose if they didn’t employ so many thoroughly detestable characters.
Antonio Brown, come on down.
The Young Money punks have slowly been dismantled. Mike Wallace is now a $60 million decoy down in Miami and Manny Sanders will be on the the receiving end of Giselle’s scorn for dropping one of Dreamboat Brady’s picture perfect passes this time next season. I wonder what Bill Belichick will think of his wide out backflipping into the end zone like a moron. In any event, when the 2014 season kicks off, Antonio Brown will be the last man standing.
I can’t say enough about how much AB has improved. He is easily the most complete receiver out of the Young Money posse. However, as talented as he is, his antics after a catch continue to grate. It’s one thing to go into labored choreographed dance routine after a TD – like Brown did against Minnesota despite the fact his team was training by two touchdowns – that’ll be a lamentable part of NFL culture until Roger Goodell decides to adopt the college rules regarding post-TD displays. What Brown does with his obnoxious preening and posing after every catch, no matter the score, situation, or if he just got done dropping an easy TD pass is a whole other matter.
Steeler Nation is finally getting fed up with AB’s showboating. After about his third or fourth pose routine on Sunday, “Antonio Brown celebrates” started trending in Pittsburgh. This morning, local radio host Randy Baumann, a diehard Steeler fan if there ever was one – recorded a parody commercial dedicated to Brown’s goofy antics. You can listen to Antonio Brown’s School of Disproportionate Celebration by clicking here.
Even better, Antonio Brown Celebrates has sprung into a full-fledged internet meme. Enter those words into Twitter’s search engine and feast your eyes on some truly hilarious photoshops mocking Brown’s ceaseless desire for celebration. Here are but a few of my favorites:
I don’t expect Brown to change. Athletes are self-important assholes by and large and football players take that to the nth degree. I’m sure he thinks he’s being cool or whatever even if he comes across like a douche. When Hines Ward began to slip and his production dropped, Steeler Nation was hugely forgiving because at the end of the day we recognized him as one of the good guys. Hopefully Brown has plenty more chances to perfect his ball-dropping pose because when Mother Nature catches up to him, his antics will engender him no such good will.