Feb 23, 2019 6 min read

Given the amount of press the buildup received, you’d have thought the second coming of the Geneva Summit was taking place between Ronald Regan and Mikhail Gorbachev earlier this week in South Florida.

Instead, it was just Steelers president Art Rooney II, general manager Kevin Colbert and salary cap specialist Omar Khan finally sitting down with Antonio Brown and his representatives to let the star receiver know the team’s stance regarding his trade request.

Their answer, according to Colbert? In a nutshell, it was “We’ll trade you, but only if it benefits us.”

You’d better believe Rooney also told Brown to tone down the social media antics. Given the world we live in, Brown hasn’t been helping himself at all with his constant updates regarding the situation. Remarkably, Brown has now gone silent on social media since posting the famous photo of he and Rooney at the end of their meeting last Tuesday.

Some have suggested this whole situation makes the Steelers look weak. Some have said the team is caving to Brown. But had it been doing that, it simply would have allowed his agent, Drew Rosehaus, to negotiate a deal. The Steelers aren’t going to do that.

They will stay in charge of this situation. They will decide where Brown ends up.

Will he get some say? Sure. He can threaten to hold out or not play for the team to which he’s traded. But given the money Brown stands to lose – and the fines he would incur – that’s unlikely.

• As for the photo that some said made Rooney look “weak,” you’d better believe he allowed that to happen to show that Brown can, indeed, act like a responsible, normal human being.

Given the way Brown has acted in the past two months, there were some legitimate questions regarding that.

The Steelers want to show potential suitors for Brown’s services that the receiver can act like an adult.

• So what now? Colbert said Wednesday the Steelers had not received calls regarding Brown’s services. By the time he went on the NFL Network Friday, three teams had inquired about a trade for Brown.

You can bet there will be even more teams who jump into the fray next week at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

Prior to this week, there was some speculation nationally that Brown might not fetch more than a mid-round draft pick. But that was simply opposing decision-makers trying to drive the price down.

Colbert, with his statement Wednesday, let them know that wasn’t going to be the case.

At worst, expect the Steelers to get no less than a high second-round pick – and maybe even a player or later picks – for Brown.

This year’s free-agent crop of receivers isn’t good. For a team that thinks it’s only a receiver short of being a contender, Brown isn’t just the best player available, he’s the only player available – unless you believe the rumors that Odell Beckham Jr. is available. And considering Beckham’s scheduled to make $4 million more in base salary than Brown and hasn’t been nearly as productive, Brown’s the better option despite being five years older.

• One statement Colbert made Wednesday that stirred up a hornet’s nest was when he was defending Ben Roethlisberger’s leadership skills.

Colbert said that Roethlisberger, who is the unquestioned leader of the team, has 52 “kids” in the locker room, insinuating Roethlisberger is the only adult in the room.

It was a poor choice of words, and Colbert clarified his statement Friday, saying the team has a number of leaders, including Cam Heyward and Maurkice Pouncey, but Roethlisberger is the elder statesman and only player on the roster who has won a Super Bowl.

It’s doubtful any of the other players in that locker room took as much umbrage with Colbert’s statement as many in the national media did. Until New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft got caught up in a prostitution sting Friday, Colbert’s statement was being dissected and rehashed all over the country as if he had said the sky was green.

• The NHL’s outdoor games were a nice idea to spur interest in the league it started playing them again regularly in 2008. But it’s an idea that might have run its course.

The league has limited the outdoor games to northern cities for obvious reasons. But because of that, it also has had limited team participation.

Yesterday’s game in Philadelphia will mark the fifth time the Penguins have participated in one of these games. It will be the fourth time for the Flyers.

The Penguins and Flyers are popular in their cities but using them – and some other popular teams such as the Chicago Blackhawks – makes this look like a straight money grab by the league.

Meanwhile, 10 of the league’s 30 teams have appeared in these games one or fewer times, including never for Nashville and Dallas. That will change in 2020 for the Predators and Stars, who will play each other at the Cotton Bowl next January, but it’s hardly a way to get cities that aren’t necessarily hockey hotspots interested in the game.

Wasn’t that what these games were, at least in part, intended to do?

• After learning the Steelers wouldn’t use a franchise or transition tag on him this year, Le’Veon Bell tweeted Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous line, “Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty I am free at last.”

Lack of proper grammar aside with his quote, Bell must not have only skipped the finance courses at Michigan State, he must have missed the courses on history, as well.

King was referring to an end to segregation and years of Jim Crow laws that continued to keep African-Americans down in the decades after the Civil War.

Bell was referring to a process in which he turned down contracts that would have paid him $30 million the past two years or simply paid him $26.6 million even without a long-term contract.

If that is Bell’s definition of oppression, we can all only hope we are put upon so horribly.