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Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown will be back in town later this season.
Brown is set to serve as the Terrible Tailgate Guest on November 27 when the Steelers host the Denver Broncos for a Black Friday matinee in Week 12.
The 38-year-old hasn't often made return trips to Pittsburgh since being traded to the Oakland Raiders in March 2019, though he'll be on the North Shore before what's shaping up to be a consequential matchup against the Broncos for the black and gold with both teams currently sitting at 6-2.
A sixth-round pick out of Central Michigan in the 2010 NFL Draft, Brown logged 167 yards as a rookie for a Steelers team that eventually lost to Aaron Rodgers, Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.
Brown went on to post 1,108 yards in 2011, resulting in his first Pro Bowl nod. After a relatively quiet 2012 campaign for his standards with 787 yards and five touchdowns, he bounced back with 1,499 yards and eight touchdowns in 2013 en route to another Pro Bowl appearance and second-team All-Pro honors.
From 2014 through 2017, Brown recorded a total of 6,349 yards and 44 touchdowns on 472 receptions, all of which led the NFL over that span. He was a first-team All-Pro and Pro Bowler in all four of those years as well while finishing second in AP Offensive Player of the Year voting on three occasions.
Brown's final season with the Steelers came in 2018, and he posted 1,297 yards with a league-leading 15 touchdowns while making a fifth-straight Pro Bowl.
While his time in Pittsburgh ended on a sour note as his relationship with the organization seemed to deteriorate, Brown is still amongst the best players in franchise history and was arguably the best wide receiver in the NFL for the majority of his time as a Steeler.
With Brown's playing career ending in 2021, he is eligible to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a member of its Class of 2027.
Whether or not he gets voted in, though, is a different story. While Brown's peak in the mid-2010s is one of the more impressive runs by a wide receiver in recent memory, and he has the accolades to show for it, his long list of off-the-field issues may ultimately prevent him from being enshrined in Canton in a timely fashion.
It's still possible that he will end up as a Hall of Famer, though making it on the first ballot feels rather unlikely for Brown.