Antonio Brown To Cleveland? Browns Fans Say 'No'

CLEVELAND — The NFL's 2018 regular season was a strange one for Cleveland and Pittsburgh fans. The Browns nearly had a winning season and looked young, vital, and talented. The Steelers missed the playoffs and battled inner turmoil among players all year long.

And for the first time in a long time, Browns fans don't want to borrow or take anything from their rivals. That includes, disgruntled but super talented wideout Antonio Brown.

Brown has been at odds with Pittsburgh's management since the end of the season. There were rumors the All-Pro player wanted a trade (the Steelers have denied this), and Brown himself joked about heading to a new team.

Despite his obvious talent and history of incredible production, Cleveland fans don't appear to want Brown on their team. When asked on Facebook if they'd like to acquire the Steelers wide receiver, Patch readers nearly unanimously said, "Nope." (Editor's note: Some people said "No" or "Nah" or "No way!")

Those responses came despite Cleveland needing a slight upgrade in wide receivers. An All-Pro talent like Brown would certainly help elevate quarterback Baker Mayfield's budding game. On the other hand, Brown would also bring a whole lot of drama.

Brown lambasted a teammate during the team's Week 17 game against the Cincinnati Bengals. He also skipped a bunch of workouts.

"This has been going on for a while, but this year it's gotten worse," a Steelers team source told ESPN. "People have covered it up and it's not getting covered up anymore."

Patch readers looked at all that in-fighting and said "Pass." We can't blame them. Here's just one example of the responses we got.

The Steelers had a year of dysfunction. Outside of Brown, another stalwart Steelers player went AWOL, Le'Veon Bell. The running back held out amid contract negotiations and missed the entire season. He'll now likely head to free agency.

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Pittsburgh has traditionally been the San Antonio Spurs of the NFL, a quietly and consistently good franchise. Like the Spurs, that all changed this year. Drama encircled two of the team's best players, Pittsburgh missed the playoffs, and the future of the team is now in question.

For Browns fans, there's a particular schadenfreude that comes from watching this happen to the Steelers. For decades, Cleveland was the butt of league-wide jokes for the franchise's ineptitude. Now the Browns are hot, promising and young. The Steelers are aging and dealing with punchlines of their own.

So, even if Antonio Brown is changing his jersey to read "Browns," that doesn't mean Clevelanders want him. Maybe they just don't need him...for once.

Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images