Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin has admitted his expletive-ridden remarks about the New England Patriots on Sunday were “regrettable” – but said Antonio Brown was “selfish and inconsiderate” to live-stream the tirade to Facebook.
Tomlin, unaware his words were being recorded, was caught on camera referring to the Patriots as “assholes” after his team punched their ticket to the AFC championship game – but his words wouldn’t have caused the storm they did if Brown hadn’t chosen to broadcast the talk on Facebook Live.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Tomlin said he was sorry for what happened.
The coach said: “The language on the video is regrettable, by me and by others. That’s why we go to great lengths to preserve certain moments and interactions between us. As a parent, as a member of the community I take that very seriously. I issue an apology in that regard.”
But he also railed against Brown, the Steelers’ star receiver. “It was foolish of him to do that,” Tomlin said. “It was selfish of him to do that. It was inconsiderate of him to do that. There are consequences to be dealt with from his perspective, and we will punish him. We’ll do so swiftly, and we’ll do so internally.
“He’s got to grow from this. He works extremely hard, he’s extremely talented, but those things get minimised with incidents such as this.”
Tomlin said he hadn’t talked to Brown yet, but plans to do so.
“I definitely don’t want that to be his story,” Tomlin said. “I’m sure he doesn’t want that to be his story. So he has to address these things that put him and us in positions from time to time in settings such as this that need to be addressed.”
Brown could be fined by the NFL for violating its social media policy, which prohibits posting messages 90 minutes before kickoff through postgame interviews.
Tomlin said: “This thing that is the National Football League, this platform that we have, is a precious and awesome thing. Not something we take very lightly. The responsibility associated with being in this thing just from a role model standpoint is something I personally embrace.”
Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told 93.7 The Fan on Tuesday that he was “a little disappointed” in his team-mate. “Coach talks and then I talk, and you just don’t want everyone to know what’s going on in there with the family,” Roethlisberger said. “And also, I wish AB would have been listening to coach and myself instead of being on the other side of the locker room filming.”
The Steelers play the Patriots for the right to go to the Super Bowl at 6.40pm ET on Sunday.
