Some shocking news came out of the NFL this week, as Antonio Brown reportedly requested a trade away from the Pittsburgh Steelers.

After being a Steeler ever since he was drafted in Round 6 of the NFL Draft in 2010, Brown is close to the end of his eight-year relationship with the franchise.

Brown did not feature in the final regular game of the NFL season, a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

His absence came after a reported training ground bust-up with the Steelers' Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, with CBS Sports reporter Jason La Canfora stating that Brown was 'completely in the wrong', chucking a football at 'Big Ben'.

Essentially Brown went AWOL again, but turned up to Heinz Field expecting to play against the Bengals, but he was obviously left out.

It's not only issues with Roethlisburger that 'AB' has though - La Canfora has also claimed that Brown feels as though Head Coach of the Steelers - Mike Tomlin - is 'too aligned' with the QB.

In a press conference yesterday, Tomlin stated that there had been no 'formal trade request' from Brown to the franchise, but when pressed on the matter of if Brown had quit on the team, his response told you everything you needed to know.

"You can call it what you want," Tomlin told the press - which basically says that Brown is guilty.

Despite the claims that the reason of a 'knee injury' to AB was the original reason why he was missing on Sunday, Tomlin clarified that Brown indeed did have soreness in that area, so they sent him for an MRI.

Now Tomlin and the rest of the higher-ups at the Steelers need to deal with Brown appropriately. They can either trade him or work their differences out - you'd have to assume they'd rather do the latter.

"I'm gonna address him [Brown] and the circumstances," said Tomlin. "But to be quite honest with you, we're going to information gather and deal with it like we do in all circumstances ... we're gonna deal with it appropriately and in-house."