This should be an interesting morning at Steelers headquarters.
The players are due in this morning to start preparations for Monday night's game at Tampa Bay. Presumably Antonio Brown will be there, and maybe he can take a detour to Mike Tomlin's office before he suits up for practice.
It's been an eventful few days for Brown, what with his sideline tantrums, argument with offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner, his "trade me" Tweet response and his apparently unexcused absence from work on Monday.
There's plenty to discuss, in other words.
The time has come for the Steelers to lay down the law to Brown. It doesn't matter whether Tomlin delivers that message. It could come from general manager Kevin Colbert or team president Art Rooney II. Or it could come from some combination of the three.
It's this simple: Show up, do your job and don't be disruptive.
If Brown doesn't want to comply, then put him on the inactive list until he changes his mind. The argument against that course of action is that Brown's absence would hurt the team.
OK, but right now his presence isn't doing the Steelers a lot of good, either.
This isn't Brown's first self-centered meltdown. It looked like he may have reformed after the Facebook Live debacle, but that wasn't the case. So he needs another reminder that the Steelers' universe doesn't revolve around A.B.
Anyone who has raised kids knows that threats must eventually have consequences. If you keep saying, "You're going to be in trouble," and it never happens, the words don't matter.
As much panic as the Steelers' 0-1-1 start has caused, it's still very early. There's plenty of time for Tomlin and the rest of management to reclaim their football team.
They just need the courage to do it.
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Sifting through Sunday's home loss to Kansas City.
--Ben Roethlisberger's deep throws have been highly inaccurate so far. Is this a temporary condition, or is his accuracy on the decline? If opponents feel they don't have to respect the deep pass, the Steelers' offense will be limited.
--When, oh when has it been as bad as this 0-1-1 start? Try 1989 when the Steelers opened the season with a 51-0 home loss to Cleveland, then went to Cincinnati and lost 41-10. They rebounded and finished 9-7. The lesson? There's a lot of season left.
--The most distressing thing about the poor defensive game was the confusion that was so often evident. The Steelers don't have an abundance of Pro Bowlers on that side of the ball. However, it appears that too many players don't understand what they're supposed to do. Bad sign.
--Roethlisberger gave Fichtner credit for not losing his patience while Brown was ranting. It was probably the best approach to take under the circumstances. Too bad those circumstances came up.
--Based on the vacation photos he's been posting, Le'Veon Bell is a bigger person than he was last year.
--Tomlin indicated the Steelers may bring in out-of-work punters for tryouts this week. Good idea.
(John Mehno can be reached at: johnmehnocolumn@gmail.com)
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