During the very public divorce between Antonio Brown and the Pittsburgh Steelers, Steelers fans were like the children in the relationship, choosing sides between player or organization figuring out who did the other wrong.
Now that Brown has been traded to the Raiders, people in Pittsburgh may be experiencing schadenfreude because they are watching Brown’s tumultuous offseason unfold in Oakland. The theoretical glee from Steelers fans is also a boon for HBO: the network announced that this week’s episode of Hard Knocks drew a local rating in Pittsburgh three times the national average for the episode.
After hearing the news, Brown took the time to tweet about the situation, comparing Pittsburgh to an ex who still misses him.
My ex still thinks of me https://t.co/v3VdlNQ88K
— AB (@AB84) August 22, 2019
That’s one way of looking at it. Another would be that it’s much less stressful to watch the train wreck happening from a distance, rather than experiencing it while you’re on the train. Viewership for the episode as a whole “was almost identical” to the third episode of last year’s series with the Browns, drawing 776,000 viewers for the premiere.
About Phillip Bupp
Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @phillipbupp