Twitter wars seemingly have taken over the NFL offseason headlines as of late, and it’s largely thanks to a brewing rivalry between Oakland Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown and his former Pittsburgh Steeler teammate, Juju Smith-Schuster.
It’s difficult to really pinpoint where this social media debacle originated, but March 10, 2019 seems like a good starting point.
Smith-Schuster tweeted out a photo of himself catching a touchdown pass against the Raiders with Brown looking on in the background, shortly after Pittsburgh dealt the all-pro receiver to the AFC West.
I’m Ready… pic.twitter.com/K9EZVna0VV
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) March 10, 2019
The petty sparks really started to fly Tuesday afternoon when Brown tweeted, “Keep your emotions off the internet.”
Less than two hours later, Brown was doing just the opposite, replying to a Steelers fan who reminded him that Smith-Schuster was the team’s 2018 MVP. The Raiders receiver called out Smith-Schuster for his costly fumble in Pittsburgh’s Week 16 loss to the New Orleans Saints.
Emotion: boy fumbled the whole post season in the biggest game of year ! Everyone went blind to busy making guys famous not enough reality these days ! 🤙🏾 by the way check the list https://t.co/2SWWT8k0jx
— AB (@AB84) April 7, 2019
Don’t forget, though: He’s totally not mad. He keeps his emotions off the internet.
Smith-Schuster didn’t take long to reply, sending a good old-fashioned, not-so-subtle subtweet less than one hour later, mimicking Brown’s message from earlier in the afternoon.
Keep your emotions off the internet
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) April 7, 2019
He quickly followed this up with a pretty sincere message, questioning why Brown was coming at him on social media.
All I ever did was show that man love and respect from the moment I got to the league. I was genuinely happy for him too when he got traded to Oakland w/ a big contract, and now he takes shots at me on social media?
— JuJu Smith-Schuster (@TeamJuJu) April 7, 2019
So what did Brown do next? He did what any sensible person in the midst of a Twitter war would do: take the feud to Instagram. But what he did there was a pretty poor decision on his part.
Check out his most recent Juju-related post.
AB’s latest message to JuJu Smith-Schuster via Instagram. pic.twitter.com/WXBAc8a7jo
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) April 8, 2019
What did Brown think this post was going to accomplish? Smith-Schuster was a college receiver asking for advice in a respectable manner. There’s… nothing wrong with that.
So, just so we have this straight, Brown calls out Smith-Schuster for blowing the Steelers’ playoff chances, Smith-Schuster replies by saying all he has ever done is respect him, and then Brown decides to pull out an Instagram message Smith-Schuster sent him four years ago?
AB pulling out this message almost four years later makes him look pretty bad if you ask us.
Score one for team Juju.
