The relationship between former Pittsburgh Steelers Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown has always been a soap opera. Despite putting up ridiculous numbers on the field, it always felt like their friendship was staged. This really showed itself when Brown went off the deep end and forced the team to trade him.
But where was the disconnect? Well, according to former Steelers long snapper Kam Canaday, it all centered around practice. Canaday talked about it on the “Keep Hammering Collective Podcast” where he shed some light on the issues with how both guys took very different approaches to practice.
“During camp, when guys were trying to work their absolute ass off to make the team, and he [Brown] still blowing everyone out of the water, still outworking them,” Kanaday said of Brown.
According to Canaday, Brown never let up when it came to his practice work and he had a problem with the fact that Roethlisberger tended to coast during practice and just show up big on Sundays.
“The guy had a motor, he didn’t slow down, and he was like that for 16 weeks, and I think that’s probably why him and Ben [Roethlisberger] probably got into it a little bit, because Ben had his two Super Bowls, and he got banged up, and Ben would sit out a little bit. He just liked to take it easy until Sunday.”
Canaday made it seem that Brown took it personally that he was not getting enough reps with Roethlisberger in practice and that would hurt Brown in games. Brown was incredibly talented but his focus was always more about his personal production as opposed to team success.
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