Antonio Brown showed the Steelers who's boss. Shamed the franchise. Brought the once-mighty Rooneys to their shaking knees.
If I've read, heard or seen this everywhere over the past 72 hours, then it must be true, right?
OK, well, let's presume it is. Let's concede that AB got everything he wanted, maybe even a little more given that the Raiders are about to shovel over eight-figure guaranteed money his way.
But let's also consider, in seeking some real balance, the following five things he's clearly lost forever:
• The best years of his career
This has nothing to do with Pittsburgh. It's because he's old. He'll turn 31 on July 10.
In other words, this:
Julio Jones is still brilliant, but he just turned 30 a month ago and he's a generational physical freak, anything but a template.
Among the NFL's top 20 wide receivers in receiving yardage, AB was the oldest. In the next tier from Nos. 20-30, the only players older than him were Emmanuel Sanders, 31, and Julian Edelman, 32. In the next tier, Nos. 30-40, the only other players older than him were DeSean Jackson, 32, Jordy Nelson, 33, and Larry Fitzgerald, 35. Those guys are tremendous players, with Fitz right up there among the all-time greats, and they still weren't productive enough to crack the league's top 20 in the statistic that matters the most.
AB's beaten a lot of formidable defenders, but Father Time won't exactly need double-coverage to slow him down.
• Any chance at a Super Bowl ring
Not there. Not ever. Whatever reasons he'd have had for blowing off the Bills, assuming they were competitive, all apply with the Raiders ... and then some.
• The best quarterback he'll ever have
I won't insult anyone here with a comparison of Ben Roethlisberger vs. Derek Carr.
But there was so much more to the relationship than Roethlisberger's Hall of Fame quality. There was a chemistry there the likes of which we'd never seen in this city, bordering on telepathy at times. That isn't casually recreated over a single summer, never mind with a dramatic downgrade at quarterback and, for that matter, the supporting cast. The experienced, accomplished offensive line here, for example, played its own part in AB's success. So did the running game. So did JuJu Smith-Schuster over the past year, though all the focus is on the reverse.
The Raiders' leader in receiving yardage last season?
A tight end, Jared Cook.
The Steelers will miss AB in the football sense, but he'll miss them that much more in the same sense.
• People who found a way to tolerate him
Try to picture Jon Gruden's reaction the first time AB tries to bring his personal Instagram photographer onto the field at Oakland's training camp.
Or Carr's reaction the first time he does one of those petulant arm-flaps to moan that he was open.
Or his other new teammates' reaction the first time he embarrasses a coordinator or pummels a Gatorade cooler or sends out a Facebook Live video of one of their private locker room talks.
Say what one will of Mike Tomlin having afforded AB excessive license -- and that's very fair criticism, I think -- but that's the only world AB's known in the NFL. And his behavior was only worsening as he aged. Anyone envisioning that's about to reverse course, or that his new environment will accept it or understand it the way the Steelers did ... is as crazy as he is.
Especially when he's no longer a top-10 or top-20 receiver in the league.
• His legacy
We've got 446 bridges inside city limits, more than anywhere in the world, and AB torched every single one of them. More than anyone who's ever played here, maybe more than any professional athlete we've ever had.
He'll get inducted into the Hall, but it sure as hell won't be in black and gold. He'll give a speech in Canton before a crowd of crickets. He'll never be invited to partake in any alumni affairs, certainly not those organized by the Steelers themselves. He might not even get his just due, at least in my view, as the franchise's greatest all-time wide receiver. The fans ultimately define that sort of thing, and they'll choose Lynn Swann, John Stallworth, even Hines Ward, over him.
Think that won't bug him?
Oh, just wait. I watched this man soak up public adulation like no one I've covered. Each time one person -- just one -- would yell 'A.B.!' from the bleachers in Latrobe, he'd stop, look, smile and wave. Almost without exception. He'd do it on NFL Sunday, too. As weird as he progressively got over the years, that never changed. He wanted to be loved. He wanted to be respected.
All that's lost.
Big winner, indeed.
JuJu Smith-Schuster. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS• It's a young man's position. And the Steelers currently have one of the best men at the position in NFL history.
That's not an opinion: JuJu's 11 games of 100-plus receiving yards are tied with Randy Moss for the most before turning 23 years old, and JuJu will still be 22 to open next season with every chance to surpass Moss in the category. He also was the youngest in league history to achieve a 100-catch season. He was 22 years, 31 days old when he did so, and Fitz was 92 days older.
Is anyone really wondering if this extraordinary talent can handle being WR1?
Or, uh, if he's confident enough?
I’m Ready... pic.twitter.com/K9EZVna0VV
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) March 10, 2019
I'll be blunt: The Steelers definitely need help at wide receiver, but they already have one better than a 31-year-old AB.
• The front office wasn't coerced or manipulated into anything. That's outright silliness.
Had Art Rooney II and Kevin Colbert wanted, they could have forced AB's hand in the worst way by forcing him to either play in Buffalo or retire. In the latter event, he'd have given up all the money he had coming on his existing contract. He and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, would have been the laughingstock of the league because they'd have been the idiots who walked away from tens of millions of dollars ... for no real reason.
Rooney and Colbert got rid of a problem.
If they were worried about being played, they wouldn’t have made a move at all. They’d have let AB rot. They’d have forced him into either reporting or retiring. They’d have saved a ton of money. They’d have saved face, too. But prioritizing perception over reality is stupid in most walks of life, and this wouldn’t have been an exception. Rooney and Colbert did what was best for the team and let everyone else vulture through the scraps.
• Put it another way: The Steelers could have won the drama. They chose to try to win football games in 2019.
• Yeah, getting picks in the third and fifth rounds stinks. But blame the crazy person for that, not the Steelers. They'd arranged a far better price from the Bills and possibly other suitors.
Ideally, given the roster's window, one or more picks can be parlayed into a move up in the first round.
• Everyone seems to want this to be about the drama, presumably to sustain the script. It isn't about drama. It's about winning football games. Getting rid of the circus -- which always was just one clown -- helps make that possible.
• The next search for drama undoubtedly will be monitoring how everyone inside the Steelers, notably the players, react to any and all AB news. A couple of players tweeted congrats to AB or wished him well ... controversy! AB unfollowed JuJu's account on Twitter ... culture!
It's all so silly.
I'm writing this now, because the development is seismic, but trust me, I'll turn to actual football at the first opportunity. And infinitely more important, those on the inside never stopped doing that. Even on that final Sunday against the Bengals, when the distraction never loomed larger, they went out and did the job.
This garbage wasn't helping:
Antonio Brown is gone. Remember the good times.
? via @Benstonium pic.twitter.com/fQ2OfU2tsq
— DK Pittsburgh Sports (@DKPghSports) March 10, 2019
• To be clear, I'll never take anything away from AB as an athlete. He's the best receiver I've seen.
• Positional needs, by priority:
1. Inside linebacker
2. Wide receiver
3. Cornerback
That's doable. All three. Ample cap space. Bonus draft picks. No cause to panic.
• Man, I'll miss Marcus Gilbert. One of my favorite humans on the local sports scene.
• Back to the rink Tuesday night. The Capitals have reclaimed their equilibrium — winning seven in a row — Carl Hagelin's back for the first time, and Tom Wilson's in tow. Should be a swell time.