Report: Antonio Brown had ‘ugly’ altercation with Ben Roethlisberger

Details are trickling out about the situation surrounding Antonio Brown with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and it does not sound good.

Brown missed practice on Wednesday, was listed on the injury report on Thursday and Friday due to his knee, and the Steelers continued to hint that his status for Sunday’s season finale against the Bengals was in question. Brown did not play in the game, and now we know why.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Brown did not attend the team’s meeting or walk-through on Saturday, so he was benched as punishment on Sunday. They also reported that he had a dispute with a teammate during the weekend.

CBS’ Jason La Canfora reports that Brown had an altercation with Ben Roethlisberger that was “fairly ugly” and Brown was in the wrong.

The altercation that led Antonio Brown's benching last week was with Ben Roethlisberger. Im told it was fairly ugly and the WR was totally in the wrong. He went AWOL essentially for the 3rd time this season dating back to training camp

— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) December 31, 2018

NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala reported that Brown and Roethlisberger had “a little bit of a disagreement” on Wednesday, which started all this.

Why would all this information leak out? The Steelers seemingly would want to keep any hint of dysfunction or problems quiet, unless they were setting the stage to part ways with Brown. Between this and some of his problems off the field, not to mention his issues with the Steelers, the team may be ready to move on.