There was a time when Ryan Clark and Antonio Brown were Pro Bowl teammates on the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, these two were teammates for four seasons from 2010 to 2013.
Four years is a long time. It’s definitely enough time to form a bond, especially when competing against one another in practice while working toward one common goal: winning.
Ryan Clark Upset About Growing Apart From Antonio Brown
While Clark and Brown were once close friends, now the former is opening up about how their friendship deteriorated.
One person who was also teammates with both Clark and Brown for three seasons from 2011 to 2013 is current Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward. He recently got Clark to appear on the ‘Not Just Football with Cam Heyward’ podcast, where the former opened up about how his friendship with Brown broke down.
“I think the entire Antonio Brown thing still makes me sad just how it played out,” Clark said.
“With the first time I ever said anything, cuz I never said it until it started to affect football, the fur coat thing, knocking over the Gatorade. The entire time I was on TV, he was AB. For six years, the best we’d ever seen at the position. It didn’t matter that I knew the things that I knew. Because it had nothing to do with football. Nothing to do with my job.”
Yet, as Heyward noted, Clark and Brown were once really close friends. Others knew that, so Clark would often be called upon to react to Brown’s various actions. But he wouldn’t take the bait.
“The other piece of it was, because people knew what our relationship was, I would get calls all the time about what he was doing that nobody saw,” Clark added. “Because people wanted me to report that. I would be like, ‘That ain’t my business.’ So, when it all came to a head, I was sitting on SportsCenter, and I was like, ‘This is kind of who he’s always been. You knew this was coming.'”
In a way, Clark essentially says he predicted the start of Brown acting up, saying it was all tied to Brown finally getting his big payday.
“I told the story of the day I knew they were going to sign him and he was walking, and I was like ‘Once y’all give him money, y’all will not be able to control him,'” Clark said. “And it was the same. They gave him money that day, and we fought that day.
“I wish I wouldn’t have said it in that way, because of the response that AB had to give me in reciprocation. For what it did to our relationship in reciprocation. For the way people outside saw me until he became what he became publicly, because people just thought I was hating.”
Clark was placed in a tough spot, being asked to comment and provide insight on who he once considered a close friend.
Yet, that’s why he was being paid the big bucks on TV: to offer his analysis on ESPN. Unfortunately, now he believes his comments played a factor in what was once a close friendship starting to tear at the seams.
