Antonio Brown's adventures into social media could wind up costing the All-Pro Steelers wideout.
NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport reported Tuesday that Brown faces a potential fine for going live on Facebook from the Pittsburgh locker room following the team's 18-16 playoff win over the Kansas City Chiefs, per a league source.
The NFL is officially looking into the situation to determine if Brown violated the league's social media policy, which reads as follows:
"The use of social media by coaches, players, and other club football operations personnel is prohibited on game day (including halftime) beginning 90 minutes before kickoff until after the post-game locker room is open to the media and players have first fulfilled their obligation to be available to the news media who are at the game."
Brown obviously skirted a portion of that directive, live broadcasting a speech from coach Mike Tomlin that landed smack dab on the radar of the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh's foe in Sunday's AFC Championship Game.
"When you get to this point in the journey, man, not a lot needs to be said," Tomlin said during the Brown recording, which garnered more than 1.1 million views and 20,000 shares before being taken down.
"Let's say very little moving forward. Let's start our preparations. We just spotted these a--h---- a day and a half," a fired-up Tomlin said of the Patriots. "They played yesterday. Our game got moved to tonight. We're going to touch down at 4 o'clock in the f---ing morning. So be it. We'll be ready for their a--. But you ain't got to tell them we're coming."
Finished Tomlin: "Keep a low profile, and let's get ready to ball like this up again here in a few days and be right back at it. That's our story."
Brown's quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, was unhappy his wideout let that speech out to the public.
"It's an unfortunate situation that we've got to deal with right now," Roethlisberger told 93.7 The Fan, via ESPN. "That's a sacred place where things are said and hugs and tears, and it's kind of a special place. So a little disappointed with AB for that ... Coach talks and then I talk, and you just don't want everyone to know what's going on in there with the family. And also, I wish AB would have been listening to coach and myself instead of being on the other side of the locker room filming."
Tomlin sounded off on the receiver's actions on Tuesday as well, hinting there will likely be a bigger punishment from him than any potential fine the league might hand down.
"It was foolish of him to do that," Tomlin said. "It was selfish for him to do that. And it was inconsiderate for him to do that. Not only is it a violation of our policy, it's a violation of league policy. Both of which he knows. So there's consequences to be dealt with from his perspective. We will punish him, we won't punish us. And we'll do so swiftly, and we'll do so internally."
