LATROBE, Pa. -- Artie Burns and Antonio Brown have been banging heads in each of the past three training camps. And it's been an interesting battle each time.
In Burns' rookie season, Brown took the young corner to the woodshed so often he probably should have felt ashamed it was so easy.
Last season, they again went head-to-head a lot and Brown again, as he does against everyone, got the better of it. But Burns also won at times.
This year, while it's not been anywhere close to even -- nobody does that against Brown, the best receiver in the league -- the battle is one worth watching every time it happens.
Monday was no different. The two lined up opposite each other in a one-on-one goal-to-go matchup and Brown broke off his route and caught a touchdown pass in the front corner of the end zone. Burns immediately began complaining that Brown had pushed off.
"You grab me all the time," Brown said as he spiked the football before spewing a few other choice words.
Yeah, these are the dog days of training camp -- the period between the start of live contact and the first preseason game. Tempers flare. Guys are sick of lining up opposite each other.
But everything was good between Brown and Burns. Moments later, Burns cut inside Brown to break up a pass over the middle and knock it down. Brown gave him a tap on the helmet.
As is always the case in training camp situations, when one player wins, that means the other has lost. And they're all on the same team. So even when it appears they don't like each other all that much, it's all just the competition of camp.
"It’s all coming on from a good place," said Burns, who left Monday's practice later with a slight groin injury. "We just want to see each other get better and win that Super Bowl."
It's all part of the process. After all, it was only a few years ago that Brown and Ike Taylor were working each other over in a camp practice and it turned into the two trading punches in the end zone. On family day.
• We're nearly one week into training camp for the Steelers and the biggest news thus far is Ramon Foster's injury.
The injury to Foster hit everyone hard. But new offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner made no bones about how tough it was to continue with practice that day.
"I was as down as anybody. I’ve been with Ramon 15 years," Fichtner told me.
Fifteen years? That made me start counting back through my head. Fichtner has been with the Steelers since 2007. That means he had a relationship with Foster that dates back to their days in college.
"Heck, Ramon turned me down when I was coaching and I recruited him," Fichtner told me. "And then his brother turned me down, too, later. I’ve been at his house in Ripley, Tennessee. I’ve known Ramon forever."
OK. That explains that. Fichtner couldn't talk Foster into heading to Memphis when he was offensive coordinator there. Foster instead chose Tennessee.
But that relationship they had built surely helped pave the way for Foster to wind up with the Steelers as an undrafted rookie in 2009. So they have known each other a long time. And when Foster was on the ground clutching his knee, it was tough for the team to move on with practice as the doctors continued to work on him. But it's a necessary part of football.
"I felt that for a second, but I knew I had to catch myself," Fichtner told me. "In a game, you can’t sit there and say, ‘Shoot, that’s a friend and I respect the heck out of this guy.’ Now I’m in the tank. We’ve got to go. I’ll come back to Ramon because I love him. That wasn’t easy. But we’ve got capable guys."
It is a tough thing to do in football. We saw that happen to the Steelers back in 2013 when Maurkice Pouncey was injured by David DeCastro a handful of plays into the regular season opener against Tennessee. The Steelers never recovered from the shock of losing Pouncey in that game and dropped that opener at home, 16-9.
It's also why Mike Tomlin has always preached the cliched "next man up," mentality that his players repeat so often -- even in a tough situation such as Saturday when a respected veteran player is down.
The show must go on.
"You’ve always heard, ‘Next man up,’ since we’ve been here and that is the truth," Fichtner told me. "I don’t know how much better you can say it. I wish we would have (patented) that phrase, we’d probably be getting some royalties."
• Other than Foster, the Steelers are going through some of the other minor bumps and bruises of training camp.
The social media universe might go crazy when they see T.J. Watt or Sean Davis or Vance McDonald are not practicing on a particular day. But if this were the middle of the season, they likely would be. It makes little sense, however, to push guys who are feeling a little sore in the hamstring or groin this year -- particularly if they are front-line players.
Rookies and guys trying to make this roster? Now, they had better be out there.
• Some guys who are showing up early in this process are rookies Matthew Thomas and Damoun Patterson, and safety Malik Golden and corner Dashaun Phillips.
Thomas, an inside linebacker out of Florida State, has a clear path to making this team if he continues to impress. He's athletic and the numbers at inside linebacker are thin.
Patterson, a receiver from Youngstown State, keeps showing up in my notebook as making plays. And at 6-2, 190 pounds, he's got pretty good size and looks the part.
Golden has been around after missing the cut last year in training camp. He's been getting his hands on the ball and the former Penn State star is outplaying fifth-round draft pick Marcus Allen, who had a really bad drop on a potential interception Monday.
Phillips, meanwhile, is an interesting guy in that he's appeared in 11 games the previous two seasons with the Washington Redskins. He's a willing tackler and even though the former Tarleton State star faces some stiff competition at cornerback with this team, he's someone worth keeping an eye on during the preseason games.
• We've now made it through the past few days without anyone talking about Le'Veon Bell -- for those out there counting. So much for the distraction.
• James Conner has looked good early in camp. And more importantly, he's stayed healthy.
But no matter what happens this preseason, Conner is still not likely to get more than a handful of carries per game. The Steelers are paying Bell $14.5 million to carry the ball this season, not watch Conner do it.
No, Conner is working to secure his spot in the team's future plans once Bell is gone.
• The Steelers ran a QB sneak off their own goal line when they were practicing with the offense backed up Monday. Of course, Ben Roethlisberger just pushed ahead and wasn't hit.
It was interesting that Roethlisberger was a full participant for the second consecutive day Monday. That's the first time he's done that in quite a while. He had been taking every third day here completely off for the past couple of years, with the day after a full work day seeing him just do some light throwing.