The relationship between Antonio Brown and Ben Roethlisberger always seemed to be very close and very positive publicly. But what we are seeing now is the two Pittsburgh Steelers’ stars has completely eroded to the point Brown is going to be traded in the near future. Much of the debate centers on the notion Roethlisberger’s single public criticism of Brown in the media is what sent all this into a tailspin.
This has brought the critics down on Roethlisberger in droves. One of them is former NFL player turned personality Shannon Sharpe. But in this case, when Sharpe says Roethlisberger never calls himself out publicly, he has it all wrong.
In fact, I’d argue Roethlisberger has gotten so casual about criticizing himself to the media it borders on disingenuous. It almost never feels like Roethlisberger is being genuine with his critiques because he knows regardless of how he plays he’s got to get out there and do it again the next week. This isn’t unique to Big Ben and many franchise quarterbacks are known to this sort of open self-deprecation to essentially absorb blame most likely reserved for other players.
