Antonio Brown – The Steelers Brightest Shining Star

This summer, a revised edition with new chapters and updated stats, dedicated to the Black and Gold book will be coming out in stores entitled “100 Things Every Steelers Fan Should Know Before They Die.”

The book, which is being published by Triumph Books, will be available in all major book stores and will retail for $14.95. It is currently available for pre-order through Amazon and Borders, and is set to arrive in stores early September.

Through the reminder of the summer, we’ll give Steelers Gab readers a sneak peek of some chapters of the book. Today we highlight one of the new chapters on maybe the best young wide out the Steelers have had in a long time – Antonio Brown.

In his first 11 games with the Steelers, Brown was inactive for seven of them. When he did play, he didn’t have that big of an impact, catching just 16 passes in the regular season, though 14 of them came in the final five games. He was starting to catch on, and little did Steeler fans know that the play that would define the postseason run of 2010 would directly involve Brown.

It took place in the AFC Divisional Playoff game vs the hated Ravens, a game where the Steelers struggled early, and found themselves down 21-7 at halftime. They fought back, and found themselves tied at 24 with a critical 3rd-and-19 with 2:07 left to play. Brown lined up wide, and raced past Lardarius Webb, pulling in a 58-yard pass against his helmet.

The catch set up a 1-yard Rashard Mendenhall touchdown, that eventually won the Steelers the game 31-24. Brown played in the next two playoff games, including the Steelers Super Bowl XLV loss to the Green Bay Packers.

He stepped up in 2011, and while he wasn’t a starter at the beginning of the season, halfway through he took over, and once he did, it didn’t take him long to quickly become a star. He was the teams voted MVP by fellow Steeler players that season, pulling in 69 yards with 1108 yards with two touchdowns. He also averaged just over 27 yards per kickoff return, and 10 yards per punt return.

Brown was voted to the Pro Bowl, and seemed to also have a place in the hearts of Steelers fans, flashing a big smile and becoming a huge fan favorite for his play on the field and his outgoing personality talking to fans on Twitter – telling them to always remember – “chest up, eyes up.”

Don’t forget, order the book through Amazon and Borders.