New Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians was offensive coordinator for the Pittsburgh Steelers when Antonio Brown was a rookie. And speaking from afar, Arians doesn't like what's happening with the Steelers' All-Pro wide receiver.
"There's too much miscommunication, too much ... diva," Arians said Tuesday on The Adam Schefter Podcast. "I've heard so many stories -- I like Antonio. He plays as hard as anybody on Sunday, and he practices hard. He's just gotta make better decisions off the field, be on time, do some of those little things."
Arians told Schefter that the Brown he is seeing today is not the one he saw when the team drafted the wide receiver in 2010.
"He was the hardest working," Arians said. "He and Emmanuel Sanders, boy they went after it, because [Steelers coach] Mike Tomlin used to tell them, 'Two dogs, one bone.' And at that time, we had Mike Wallace, Hines Ward -- I mean, we had a pretty good run for one of them to get on the field. By the end of the season, they were both winning for us to go to the Super Bowl."
The Steelers lost to the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl that 2010 season.
Arians stayed on as offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh for another year, but he left in 2011, after eight seasons with the team, to be offensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts. He became interim head coach when Chuck Pagano became ill and was named Associated Press Coach of the Year for leading the Colts to the playoffs. Arians also won the coach of the year award with the Arizona Cardinals in 2014.
Brown's absence from Week 17 practices this season resulted in a benching for the Steelers' season finale against the Cincinnati Bengals, and during that week, Brown had a flare-up in a team setting.
Last week, team president Art Rooney II told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Brown would not be released but that "all other options are on the table" regarding his future with the Steelers. Rooney also said it would be "hard to envision" Brown as part of the team when it reports to training camp in late July.