Ben Roethlisberger: Antonio Brown locker room incident 'water under the bridge'
PITTSBURGH – Three days after Antonio Brown’s infamous Facebook Live incident, the Pittsburgh Steelers are taking a page from the New England Patriots’ playbook. It’s on to the AFC Championship Game.
“I spoke about it yesterday, and now it’s water under the bridge,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Wednesday, one day after revealing he was “a little disappointed with AB” during his weekly Pittsburgh radio interview.
Tailback Le’Veon Bell wouldn’t say if Brown addressed the players during the Steelers’ Wednesday morning pre-practice meeting, instead opting to defend his embattled teammate.
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“I talked to him,” said Bell. “I’m always going to support him, whatever he does. He obviously wasn’t doing anything to try and hurt anybody.”
Later today, Brown, who issued a public apology via Twitter on Tuesday night, will make his first public comments since he live-streamed the winning locker room – and coach Mike Tomlin’s not-so-flattering remarks about the Patriots – following the Steelers’ divisional round playoff defeat of the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
“When you get to this point in the journey, men, not a lot needs to be said,” Tomlin was overheard saying off-camera. “Let’s say very little moving forward. Let’s just start our preparations. We spotted those a------- 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 f------- morning. So be it. We’ll be ready for that ass. But you ain’t gotta tell them we coming. Because some of us might not like the damn (inaudible) and s---. It’s the chest pounding, right? Keep a low profile and let’s get ready to ball out again in a few days and be right back at it. Hey, man, that’s our story.”
“We’ve been able to move on. We’ve had our ups and downs this year – good, bad, injuries, whatever – and we’ve been able to overcome. That’s what makes this team special,” said Roethlisberger.
“We focus in on what we need to.”
Roethlisberger also responded to Patriots receiver Julian Edelman, who said "that's how that team is run" when asked about the remarks in Brown's video.
“I don’t think I need to speak much,” Roethlisberger said. “We’ve got our trophies out there. I’ve got owners that I think are the best in the business. They’re family to us, and I’m sure if he talked to his owner, he would say the same thing about the Rooneys. Anybody in here in the football world or the regular world that owns the Rooneys knows what they stand for. It’s a blessing to call them a family.”
Asked to clarify his own comments earlier this week about the Steelers organization in a conference call with Pittsburgh media Wednesday evening, Edelman responded:
“Yeah, I mean, I think it was taken out of context. I’ve got nothing but respect for the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re an unbelievable franchise. It starts from the top with the Rooney family, coach Tomlin. I don’t know, I may have said it, but I think more it’s not the way we would do it here. And that’s just how that goes. There’s no maliciousness about it. But whatever. That’s just what the media does, try to make stories.”
Follow Nate Davis on Twitter @ByNateDavis.
