Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and some other members of the team spoke in what they thought was a private forum after Sunday night’s win, but Antonio Brown decided to broadcast much of the postgame celebration on social media.
When the Steelers returned to their locker room after beating the Kansas City Chiefs 18-16, Brown logged into Facebook live and kept his camera rolling (the video will be pulled eventually) for more than 17 minutes. In addition to broadcasting a bunch of curse words and naked butts to his 600,000-plus followers, Brown also captured a speech that Tomlin undoubtedly wanted to remain in-house.
While speaking with his players about the upcoming AFC Championship Game, Tomlin referred to the New England Patriots as “a–holes.”
“When you get to this point in the journey, not a lot needs to be said,” Tomlin said, as transcribed by Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com. “Let’s say very little moving forward. Let’s start our preparations. We spotted those a–holes a day and a half. They played yesterday. Our game got moved to tonight. We gonna touch down at 4 o’clock in the f—ing 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 (woofkisses?) The chest pounding. Keep a low profile.”
Ironically, a Steelers player or coach urged the team to keep quiet on social media right after Tomlin finished addressing the team.
“Keep it cool on social media,” the player or coach said. “This is about us, men, nobody else.”
A voice that sounded like Ben Roethlisberger’s could then be heard telling his teammates they are “heading into a lion’s den” next week and to “keep your mouth shut.”
In reality, Tomlin was simply motivating his team like many other coaches do. The remarks he made about the Patriots probably weren’t personal, though he does have a history with whining about things Bill Belichick does.
Personal or not, Tomlin wanted his words to motivate his own players, not his opponent. The Patriots are as good as any organization in sports at using bulletin board material to fuel them, and they now get to play Tomlin’s speech on repeat for the next 6 days.
You can see Brown’s full Facebook live video below. Tomlin’s speech begins at around the 2:05 mark.
