People in Pittsburgh or Steelers fans in general might not want to hear or believe this, but Antonio Brown truly seems like a changed man.
Banished from the NFL last year for a myriad of off-field issues after forcing his way out of Pittsburgh and then Oakland, Brown had to take a big step back from his life and realize he was on the wrong path if he wanted to continue to play in the NFL.
He did and he did.
Now with the Buccaneers, the 32-year-old will play in his second Super Bowl on Sunday when Tampa Bay plays the Chiefs. And Brown is clearly a man who has swallowed his pride and seemingly gotten his life in order.
"Antonio and I connected right away," said Bucs quarterback Tom Brady. "He has a great love for the game. He's a real perfectionist about how he plays, how he takes care of himself. He's got an incredible football IQ and a great skillset as a player. I think he's made incredible strides over the last 12 months to get from where he was at to where he is at now. I think that's, again for me as an older player, the impact that I want to have as I move forward is to help other people maximize their potential."
Brady has championed Brown from the day he formulated his release from the Raiders, who acquired Brown in a trade with the Steelers prior to the 2019 season.
Brown's behavior had grown beyond diva-like both on and off the field as he forced his way out of two situations, including with the Steelers, who had drafted him in the sixth round of the 2010 draft and saw him grow into one of the NFL's top wide receivers.
But as Brown's fame grew, so too did his ego. He was doing national commercials. He appeared on the cover the EA Sports' Madden football game and the cover of GQ. He didn't want to be told what to do -- on or off the field. What seemed to be a career destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame went on a two-year hiatus.
Brown played one game with Brady and the Patriots in 2019 before a civil suit claiming sexual assault landed him in hot water with the NFL and led to his release by New England. Then came criminal charges for an arrest for a physical altercation with a delivery driver at his home in Florida.
He wound up drawing an 8-game suspension from the NFL for multiple violations of the league's personal conduct policy to start this season. Tampa Bay took a chance on Brown at Brady's behest.
Brown has stayed on course with everything. He's stayed off of social media. He hasn't had any issues this season, even though his role with the Bucs is more of the No. 3 receiver on a team with Mike Evans and Chris Godwin than that of being the No. 1 to which he is accustomed.
We didn't see Brown pout or have any emotional outbursts when he didn't get the ball as he sometimes did in Pittsburgh.
Still, he caught 45 passes for 483 yards and four touchdowns in eight games, then added four more receptions for 65 yards in the Bucs' first-round playoff win before suffering a knee injury that has him questionable to play against the Chiefs.
Brown credits Brady and the NFL for helping him get his house in order. The league got Brown help, too. And it seems to have worked.
"I really haven't spoken with him," Brown said of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "They did a good job with the process of getting me to this point. I was super grateful about the opportunity to restart my career here and do what I continue to love and continue to fulfill my dream as a kid."
He also still talks on occasion with Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin and some of his former teammates.
"I keep in touch with a couple of teammates," Brown said. "I still stay in contact with Mike T. He is always a leader for me. He's always there for me. As I continue on the journey, we'll be in touch."
Maybe some day Brown and the Steelers organization will have a moment of reconciliation. Brown forced his way out at a time when he was widely considered the best receiver in the league if not the best player overall.
He was coming off a game in which he had 14 catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns in Week 16 of 2018 in a loss at New Orleans. But things went sour that week when he reportedly got into an altercation during a walk-through with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, then stayed away from the team facility after his teammates voted wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster the team's MVP for the 2018 season.
Brown tried to come back and play in the Steelers' regular season finale that season after skipping practices all week. Tomlin told him to forget about it, the Steelers would play without him.
The Brown of today sounds like he would have handled that situation differently.
"It's all about controlling your emotions, physically, mentally, when you don't feel good," Brown said. "Not being a slingshot when others come at me. Learning how to control my attitude, not letting my emotions get the best of me, even if something they did was wrong, just being forgiving. Staying positive."
If only he had learned that lesson a few years earlier.
Brown was asked if he could go back in time and tell the sixth-round pick in 2010 out of Central Michigan something what that would be. His message was a simple one.
"I would tell myself, 'rookie Antonio, be humble, no matter what phase you get into in the NFL, be humble,'" he said. '"It's not about the destination and the journey, it's about the company you keep. This game can be taken away from you at any moment. Maximize your opportunity because you never know when you'll get another opportunity.'
"It's just being humble. I've been making the most of my opportunity and channelling my emotions. As a football player, you know what you're capable of and you get excited and want to do more. But I had to understand I came here excited and grateful for any opportunity I had, if it was two plays or 20 plays. For me, it's just staying ready. I don't know how many plays I'm going to get. I just prepare for the moment. I keep my mind positive and poised for the outcome. In Pittsburgh, I was seeing 10, 12 targets a game and you know what that entails."
It sounds like some lessons were learned.
