Antonio Brown Ribbed Mason Rudolph, James Washington About Central Michigan Loss

Being an NFL rookie is hard enough.

For past and present teammates Mason Rudolph and James Washington, it was not enough that they have to learn a new city, and new offense, teammates and coaches.

Rudolph also started by navigating the waters of a perceived spat between he and his soon-to-be mentor, a future Hall of Famer in Ben Roethlisberger — before they had even met. For Washington, it was more about starting to try and make a name for himself among a star-filled receiver corps behind another HOFer in Antonio Brown.

But to make things worse, Brown apparently hasn’t forgotten about probably the biggest win in his alma mater’s history and the undoubtedly the most polarizing loss in theirs.

However, their seriousness in practice has apparently not prevented Brown from ribbing both players about their 30-27 loss to his alma mater Central Michigan in 2016, he told us. A game that ended with a miraculous Hail Mary and lateral for the winning score as time expired. A highlight both players are sure to want to forget. [SteelersWire]

Brown made his feelings known back in 2016 after the officiating debacle that resulted in an unearned mark in the L column for OSU. I guess you can’t blame him for riding for the, uh, Chippewa brand.

Central Michigan alum Antonio Brown tells @GottliebShow that CMU should NOT have to give back their win over Oklahoma State.

— Adam Klug (@Adam_Klug) September 20, 2016

Brown did go on to praise the former Cowboy duo for their demeanor and mentality after observiung them in a handful of practices.

“I just love their attitude and how they work,” Brown told SteelersWire. “Those guys are professional. I love those guys, both James and Mason, you can just see the seriousness on their face and their attention to detail, the wanting to be great, you know what I mean, just the hunger from young guys.”

Brown, who has helped foster a number of young  players over his time, including last year’s rookie phenom JuJu Smith-Schuster, has seen plenty of rookies come through OTAs, minicamps, etc. but says Rudolph and Washington stick out.

“Typically when you see a young guy, you see a group of guys who are just probably excited about being successful and living the dream finally, but you know when I see those guys, I see, like, two serious guys. They take it serious, they want to work hard, they got the knack for wanting to be great. So when you see young guys like that, you know they’re going to be special in this league.”

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