Pittsburgh Steelers: Big Ben admits fault in Antonio Brown fallout

The Antonio Brown era is over in Pittsburgh. After months of silence on the matter, Ben Roethlisberger has finally spoken on Brown’s exit from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t have any personal social media accounts. His BigBen7.com social media profiles are run by a member of his representation, so speaking out on social media and getting into Twitter battles isn’t going to happen.

While this entire situation with the Steelers and Antonio Brown came to an abrupt and ugly end, Big Ben stayed quiet. But finally, months after Brown’s departure to the Oakland Raiders, Ben Roethlisberger sat down with Bob Pompeani of KDKA  to discuss it:

The interview aired in two parts on Pittsburgh’s local KDKA news on Tuesday night. Ben Roethlisberger talked about numerous things, including the Antonio Brown fallout, along with his leadership and life without Antonio Brown as well.

When specifically asked about how he felt about his role in the fallout with Brown, Ben stated that if his public comments were the cause of Brown’s desire to leave, then he was “genuinely sorry” about it. The specific public comments Ben was referring to were his critiques of Brown’s route-running in the loss to Denver.

As far as the future of his radio show goes, Ben Roethlisberger said it is still undecided if he will continue to do the radio show. He stated he thinks it’s cool for the fans to experience a bit of what goes on in the huddle week to week.

A couple of the quotes from the interview were posted on social media earlier in the day on Tuesday. It didn’t take long for Antonio Brown to send a response.

There were many reports earlier this offseason that shortly after the season, Big Ben tried to reach out to Brown via phone call and text, but they never connected. Ben confirmed this in this interview, and also mentioned that Brown still has not returned any calls or texts.

Brown took several shots at Ben publicly this offseason in several ways. He made comments on social media, his appearance on HBO’s The Shop, and his lengthy interview with ESPN’s Jeff Darlington. Brown’s criticisms were the catalyst for forcing his way out of town.

In contrast of Brown’s criticism of him, Ben just finished taking some of his teammates to his Georgia lake house this past week. Social media posts from guys like James Conner and JuJu Smith-Schuster showed them along with several other teammates on Ben’s boat and in his pool.

This had been something that Ben had done in years past, but had taken a few years off from doing so while Ben paid more attention to his growing family.

Whatever Ben’s reason is for waiting until now to say something on the situation, or to even say anything at all, is yet to be heard. Ben apologizing and showing humility is definitely a good PR look for him. But at the same time, there is more evidence that Ben is a better leader than Brown made him out to be this past offseason.

The “Big Ben is the problem in Pittsburgh” agenda was over-hyped and overplayed this offseason. Most of it was built on fallacies and stretches of the actual truth in most cases. Ben’s continued humility this offseason only strengthens that point. And it didn’t take long for people to see how toxic Antonio Brown was when he started bashing JuJu Smith-Schuster on Twitter.

OTA’s being this week for the Steelers. Big Ben will most likely be focused on football from here on out. He has sent a clear message this offseason. He’s focused on connecting with his teammates and getting back to playing meaningful football into late January, possibly even early February.

Big Ben did everything right this offseason. He let the dust settle before making any comments on the situation. He said what he needed to say in an interview. He took the high road. Antonio Brown didn’t. But now, Ben will be focused on football.