You probably woke up Friday morning extremely confused about what was going on with disgruntled Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Antonio Brown and a reported trade that may or may not be happening with the Buffalo Bills.
For now, it doesn’t sound like it’s happening. But for a stretch in the wee hours of Friday morning, it was close to happening, and social media was going pretty bonkers. Then, at around 7 a.m. Eastern, it wasn’t. Let’s untangle this whole mess and show you what went down while most of you — save for the receiver and a bunch of NFL reporters — were sleeping.
It began with NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reporting the Steelers were “closing in” on a trade with the Bills.
But then other reports refuted it.
Here’s Bills writer Vic Carucci:
And AP sports writer John Wawrow:
ESPN’s Adam Schefter jumped in at 3:11 a.m. Eastern:
Brown himself weighed in on Instagram, calling the reported near trade “fake news.”
Rapoport provided an update about the Steelers and Bills having “aggressive talks.”
And then, it was dead.
Here’s Schefter again with word from the Bills’ front office: “We have moved on.”
Rapoport said the same.
Fin (for now).
