A SEVEN-time Pro Bowler, four-time All-Pro selection, 11,207 total receiving yards and 74 career touchdowns. 

It’s safe to say that Antonio Brown has certainly assembled himself quite the career. Even at 31 years old, Brown is often regarded as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL today. Some would even say he is one of the best of all time. 

The numbers are certainly there to back it up and anyone who has watched Brown in the flesh or on TV would be hard-pressed to disagree with those comments.

Talent has never been in doubt for Brown, that’s sure enough.

The former Central Michigan product was picked in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft — the second to last round in the draft — and forced his way into a Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiving unit that has always been one of the best among the NFL, coached by the late Darryl Drake who unfortunately died last week.

Hard work has also never been an issue for Brown either. He routinely outworks and outshines most players on the practice field and is more or less always healthy and ready to go, playing in 130 regular season games across his soon to be 10-year career. 

Brown, in essence, is a coach’s dream on the field and in practice when he’s playing football. 

Over the past few years, as No 84’s stature has grown, along with his penchant for flashy arrivals to training camp, so have the problems surrounding his personality. 

It’s understandable why his ego has inflated so much over the past few years.

Brown is often compared with the likes of Jerry Rice and Randy Moss, the two most dominant wide receivers in NFL history. That’s rarified air. 

Brown is only human after all, even if he is viewed as a superhuman athlete. We exist in a society where sports analysts are now chomping at the bit to get their opinions off. 

For those opinions to reach the surface, they have to be drenched in hyperbolic tones. Someone is always “washed” or a “G.O.A.T” — a creative but generally meaningless acronym to describe the greatest of all time. 

The shine of the term has worn off now that it exists for just about anyone who’s done something meaningful in their career.

Still, when you believe you are as good as the former Steelers wideout believes he is, and he has every meaningful stat to back him up, that measure of belief and self-worth extends beyond the social norms. 

In Brown’s eyes, presumably, he is untouchable.

That’s what makes his current situation so concerning. Brown was traded by the Pittsburgh Steelers in March of this year, in a classic case of “who dumped who?” 

From a Facebook Live feed in the locker room to the Steelers believing Brown had quit on them in week 17 of last season, where Brown was nursing an injury and kept himself separate from the team, only appearing at the final moment to make himself unavailable. At that point, the Steelers were still in the play-off hunt but ultimately missed out.

For the Steelers, it was the final straw. Brown had put himself above the team one time too many. It was too much.

His relationship with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger appeared to have been fractured for some time, and all signs pointed towards a power struggle.

Now Antonio Brown is a member of the Oakland Raiders, but for how long?

The wild and frantic nature of Brown’s personality has already descended into chaos and it’s only August.

He’s currently nursing an unusual injury: frostbitten feet from wearing inappropriate footwear in a cryotherapy chamber. In fairness, the blame cannot land on the metaphorical feet of Brown in that regard. 

Unfortunately, that’s not the strangest thing that the Oakland Raiders have to contend with this season. Brown has voiced his displeasure at having to wear a new NFL regulation helmet after his old style of helmet was deemed illegal under the league’s new standards. 

There were rumblings that he may retire if he doesn’t get his way.

Brown, refusing to wear the new regulation helmet, spray-painted his old Steelers helmet in an attempt to deceive everyone involved and pawn it off as one of the new league helmets. 

No-one was fooled.

After a lengthy dispute, and a lost grievance hearing, Brown returned to the Raiders training camp last Tuesday and got back to work. Until this past Sunday, that is, when Brown was absent from training camp once again, due to his ongoing discontent with the new helmet rules.

That led to Raiders general manager Mike Maycock issuing an ultimatum to Brown, saying: “From our perspective, it’s time for him to be all-in or all-out.” 

That is alarming for the Raiders, who paid the Steelers a third-round and sixth-round draft pick for Brown’s services. For now, Brown’s Raider career and NFL career remain in jeopardy. Only he can change this questionable status.

Brown might feel unfairly treated by the NFL but, as Maycock said, it’s time to be all-in or all-out, and the Raiders need him to be all in.

Brown did show up to practice on Tuesday with an NFL-certified helmet, though he’s still filing a second grievance with the NFL to be allowed to wear his old one for one more season. 

Brown is a generational talent, but talent only matters when he’s on the field.