Regeln » As Antonio Brown tries to talk his way out

of Pittsburgh Brandon LaFell Jersey , he’s also potentially talking his way out of other possible NFL cities before he even arrives. Which could set the stage for a fight between player and team that will make the Eagles vs. T.O. look like a mild dinner-table disagreement.Although Brown has largely curtailed his social-media agitation since Mr. Big Chest met with the Steelers’ Mr. Big, Brown’s comments on HBO’s coupled with his remarks to ESPN will make it harder, not easier, for the Steelers to find a trade partner. Which will make it more likely that the Steelers eventually will give Brown the “play for us or play for no one” ultimatum, based by the leverage that comes from $11.4 million in unearned signing bonus money that Brown, if he chooses not to play for the Steelers, would have to repay.Brown nevertheless seems to be confident that the Steelers will take the best trade offer, from a team he finds suitable, that’s on the table before Brown’s $2.5 million roster bonus becomes due on March 17.“Why wouldn鈥檛 they not trade me?” Brown told ESPN. “They gotta pay me $2.5 million on March 17. If I invoice you March 17, $2.5 million that you gotta pay me, would you pay it or would you get somebody else to pay it? So it鈥檚 what — pretty much what鈥檚 good for their business. . . .聽They want to start a fresh offseason with no bad blood so their team could just focus on football. No distraction from any player. So I think they鈥檒l get it done.”Although Steelers G.M. Kevin Colbert told this week that the team could pay the money and still trade Brown later, the Steelers could pursue other strategies. They could suspend him for conduct detrimental to the team, place him on the reserve/suspended list, take the position that he’s not on the roster, and refuse to pay the money. They also could regard his comments about wanting out of Pittsburgh coupled with his remarks about not needing football as an indication that he intends to retire absent a trade, and they can place him on the reserve/retired list, forcing him to file a grievance based on the argument that he actually isn’t retired Derek Carrier Jersey , and that he’s committed to playing for the Steelers.Or they could just pay the money and use it as added leverage to compel him to show up and play for the Steelers this year, since the $2.5 million would be added to the $11.4 million that he already has received but not earned.Brown seems to be banking on the team’s desire to turn the page on a potential distraction, and thus he’s willing to make as much of a distraction as possible in order to get the Steelers to move on, even if he resents being regarded as a distraction. Unless the planets align before March 17, with a team for which Brown is willing to play giving the Steelers what they want and giving Brown what he wants and being willing to assume the risk that a guy who says “if they wanna play, they going to play by my rules” means what he says, the Steelers will have to decide whether to pay Brown the money and keep trying to trade him or pay Brown the money and ultimately keep him, even if he doesn’t want to stay, with a plan to embrace the distraction and use the $13.9 million in unearned pay as leverage to get him to realize how good he has it and move forward.However it plays out, Brown is openly daring the Steelers to play hardball. At some point, maybe they will. COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Lee Smith had seen the Hall of Fame several times. This visit was completely different.“I’m still in awe,” Smith said after the tour Tuesday, in preparation for his July induction. “Whenever I sign an autograph and someone says, ‘Hey, put Hall of Fame on it,’ I don’t know if the Hall of Fame goes first or the year goes first.”Smith Mike Nugent Jersey , who emerged as an ace reliever with the Chicago Cubs in the 1980s, and former White Sox star Harold Baines were voted into the baseball shrine in December by a select committee. They will be inducted along with Mariano Rivera, the late Roy Halladay, Mike Mussina, and Edgar Martinez, who were elected last month by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.The 61-year-old Smith was at the 2009 Hall of Fame induction of Rickey Henderson, Jim Rice and Joe Gordon. But this time was overwhelming as the monumental aspect of his upcoming enshrinement was still sinking in.Smith appeared on the BBWAA ballot 15 times and never came close.“It was unbelievable just to get that call. You wait so many years,” Smith said. “When I first retired, people told me I was going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I’ve got goosebumps. I’ve never been nervous before, but I’m nervous right now.“It’s been crazy,” he said. “There’s a lot of this stuff here I already knew, especially about the Negro League and guys I played with and against. But being here is like no game you’ve ever been in before.”With his menacing stare and hard fastball, Smith was of baseball’s premier closers in the 1980s and 1990s, an imposing 6-foot-5 atop a pitching mound. During an 18-year career, he pitched for eight teams, making his initial mark with the Cubs from 1980-87. He also pitched for the Red Sox (1988-90), Cardinals (1990-92) Frostee Rucker Jersey , Yankees (1993), Orioles (1994), Angels (1995), Reds (1996) and Expos (1997), and was the all-time saves leader with 478 when he retired in 1997.A seven-time All-Star, Smith led his league in saves four times and topped the 30-save mark 11 times. Smith held the all-time saves record until Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman eclipsed it in 2006 and now ranks third behind Rivera (652) and Trevor Hoffman (601).“Everybody recognizes me now because of the Hall of Fame,” said Smith, a minor league pitching coach with San Francisco. “Back in the day I had an identity crisis because in Chicago everybody wanted to throw me on the football field because I was such a big guy. I don’t have that problem anymore. Now they know who Lee Smith is. I’m proud of that.”Smith spent an inquisitive two hours touring the Hall of Fame. While viewing the “Pride and Passion” exhibit dedicated to the African-American baseball experience, Smith told a story from his high school days in Louisiana. Soon after it was desegregated, he said, an opposing team hung Smith in effigy when his school visited.With an early lead, Smith said he began hitting batter after batter. He didn’t even realize, he added, when the other team eventually took the offending image down from a tree.