Antonio Brown’s kick to the head of Cleveland Browns punter Spencer Lanning whilst with the Pittsburgh Steelers remains one of the more memorable ‘fails’ in NFL history. There are some times in life where, despite how much you might prepare for things and you think that it is going to perfectly, only for it to blow up in your face.
Well that is exactly what happened to Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown during a game against the Cleveland Browns at the start of the 2014 season.
Whilst Brown may go down as one of the best wide receivers of his generation, racking up 12,044 receiving yards and 78 receiving touchdowns to go with 4 first-team All-Pro honours, 7 Pro Bowl appearances and being named in the NFL’s All-Decade team of the 2010s, he made his name in the NFL initially as a special team player returning kickoffs and punts.
And he actually managed to be quite successful with a lot of them. Arguably his most famous one coming against the Indianapolis Colts during the 2015 season, although this one was remembered more for the celebration than it was the play itself, as he ended up, to borrow the old expression, literally hitting his head on the goalpost: With 71 days until Steelers regular season football begins in Week 1 against the Bengals, here's the 71 yard punt return for a TD by Antonio Brown (@AB84) against the Colts in 2015. (@patmcafeeshow) #Steelers #NFL #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/t47nQzVVXU That one went off without a hitch, although he was perhaps a little bit lucky not to earn himself a flag for excessive celebration.