Head case

Wide receiver/drama king Antonio Brown is said to be reporting to training camp with the Raiders today, which is maybe good news for the Raiders but maybe not, considering the media will be all over him in a very Terrell Owens sort of way.

It might be premature to declare A.B. the new and improved T.O., but his seemingly unchecked tendency to focus attention on himself and his problems seems to be approaching T.O. levels. The Blob is famously loathe to regard off-the-field "distraction" as anything but a theoretical concept (i.e.: An excuse for on-the-field failure), but A.B. certainly comes off as distraction with a capital D.

It's why the Blob wonders if the Pittsburgh Steelers aren't secretly looking west to Oakland these days, and suppressing a smile or two. Good luck, boys. You're gonna love having A.B. around. He'll catch a lot of balls for you when he's not bitching about next to nothing and dividing your locker room.

Now, that might not be true. But it is true the Steelers are no longer lighting up social media with their family squabbles, now that A.B. is gone. "As The Wideout Turns" has closed its run. It's been remarkably quiet around their team during training camp, except for the usual mundane stuff about who's hurt and who's not and who looks like they could make the 53-man roster.

But in Oakland?

The circus is in town, baby. First, A.B. vanished from camp because of a mysterious ailment that turned out to be frozen feet. Then he started complaining about not being able to wear his outdated helmet anymore, saying if the NFL wouldn't let him wear it, he'd leave the game.

Which was ridiculous, of course. Platinum-grade drama king nonsense.

Anyway, A.B. appealed the decision, the NFL told him to pipe down and wear the approved headgear, and now Helmetgate is apparently over. Well ... except for the media questions about it, which will surely dog A.B., the Raiders and head coach Jon Gruden well into the regular season.

No horse is so dead, after all, that the NFL media can't keep beating it. It is, you see, an Issue, and there's nothing the NFL media likes more than an Issue. Even if A.B. is the only guy who made it one.

To be sure, more players than just A.B. are miffed that the NFL has banned the old headgear. But no else threatened to quit over it. No one else, as the saying goes, made a federal case out of it.

So congratulations, Coach Gruden. You've now got the best wide receiver in football.

And everything that comes with him.