With 4:41 left in the second quarter of their game Sunday in Kansas City, as the Steelers drove toward still another of this season’s many field goals, Antonio Brown caught a pass over the middle and dashed through the Chiefs secondary for a 26-yard gain.
The play already was a success when Martavis Bryant became involved, and he didn't add much if anything to extend its value. But he didn't do nothing. As Brown fought for extra yards, Bryant slammed his wiry frame into free safety Ron Parker and dropped him to the turf. Brown went down about the same time, in the same area, but he noticed the effort Bryant had spent and rewarded it with a hand slap.
This wasn't the only indication that Bryant was invested in Sunday's 19-13 Pittsburgh victory. There was the short sideline pass he turned into a 7-yard gain in the first quarter, the sort of play on which he routinely had been tackled this season for a loss or no gain. There was his 20-yard catch early in the second quarter on a crossing pattern. There was his arrival on the scene after Brown’s miraculous, had-to-have it touchdown in the fourth quarter and his engagement in Brown’s oddly choreographed celebration.
There was this tweet following the game:
Big win today and tomorrow right back to work tomorrow I am happy to be a steeler and can't wait to reach number 7 this year.
— Martavis Bryant (@ThaBestUNO) October 16, 2017
None of this seemed like the activity of a player fighting his way out of town, and yet after the Steelers had cleared their locker room and began their trip home, NFL.com's Ian Rapoport reported that Bryant had recently requested a trade and that teammates and coaches were aware he is unhappy.
I’ve got a movie quote I like to use for such occasions, the single best moment from “An Officer and a Gentleman":
That’s right: “My grandmama wants to fly jets.”
Such a cool way of saying to someone: You dream the impossible dream.
Oh, yeah: That’d be another eloquent way to say it.
Look, the Steelers aren't going to trade Bryant before the Oct. 31 deadline. Whoever tipped Rapoport surely knows this is not how the team operates, or else that person does not know the business very well.
The Steelers list every player transaction executed since 2006 on their website. There are trades mentioned here and there, but in those 12 seasons there is only a single citation of a player trade executed after a season’s first football was kicked: moving conditional picks to Arizona for offensive tackle Levi Brown in October 2013.
That one didn't turn out so well: Brown got hurt in warmups before his first game and never played. Because the “conditional" aspect of the trade required he actually remain on the active roster for a time, the Steelers were able to ask for what amounted to a refund. No pick changed hands. They haven't made such a deal since.
MORE: Bryant now 'happy' in Pittsburgh?
So for the entirety of Mike Tomlin's tenure as head coach, the team has never traded away a player during the season. This is a franchise that has a way of doing business: patience with the head coaches, no contract negotiations after the season starts, never trading away players in-season.
Look, if somebody in the league came along offering an All-Pro safety playing on a rookie-level contract, or if a team headed toward the top five in the draft offered its No. 1 pick, the Steelers would do it. Their way of doing things does not include abject stupidity. But not even the poorest-run franchise is going to overpay for a wide receiver whose track record includes a season-long suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.
Why such a player would do anything beyond staying wide awake in every film session, running the assigned routes and catching whatever balls are thrown his way is hard to figure. But so is getting one's self suspended for a year.
His girlfriend, Deja Hiott, tweeted and then deleted a declaration of Bryant's disappointment: "You guys should have seen it coming. Taking him off the field, not giving the ball or the chance to reach his full potential."
It is likely Bryant and his people saw that the Steelers responded to Antonio Brown’s abuse of a cooler during the Oct. 1 Baltimore game by calling for a long pass down the right sideline to AB on the first play of their next game — then decided he might get similar treatment. Of course, if Bryant had caught the same pass, directed his way on the first play of the game at Chicago, none of this falderol might have been necessary.
That pass glanced off his fingertips.
He would do well to drop fewer balls and less news.
