Antonio Browns’ helmet catch whilst with the Pittsburgh Steelers remains one of the more remarkable displays of quick thinking and skill in the National Football League.

Whilst with the Pittsburgh Steelers, you could make the argument that there was nobody better and there wasn’t a more electrifying talent when it came to playing the position of wide receiver than Antonio Brown.

He didn’t start off that way though, as he was kept in the shadows for the majority of his early years in the NFL, starting off his career mainly being utilised as a punt and kickoff returner, but when he was given a chance to become a prominent member of the offense in 2011, he ran with it and never looked back.

He racked up 12,044 receiving yards and 78 receiving touchdowns to go with 4 first-team All-Pro honours and 7 Pro Bowl appearances whilst also being named in the NFL’s All-Decade team of the 2010s whilst wearing the black and gold as he formed part of the ‘Killer Bs’ offense of Ben Roethlisberger and Le'Veon Bell.

Sadly though all of that wasn’t able to translate into success for the Steelers, the furthest they were able to reach being the AFC Championship game in the 2016 season where they were defeated by the New England Patriots.

A highlight machine

In amongst all of those numbers though were some rather unforgettable moments whilst with the Steelers organisation. There was the reach across the goalline back in 2016 that helped them win the AFC North over the Baltimore Ravens in a last-ditch play:

Then there was his punt return against the Indianapolis Colts, where the play isn’t remembered as much for the play itself but for the celebration afterwards where he hugged the goalpost:

The cream of the crop

But if there’s one play that summed up just how impressive he was as a player, it was his play against the Baltimore Ravens in the 2010 playoffs. With time ticking away and the Steelers down, Brown was able to escape his defender before hauling in a pass and keeping the ball stuck to his helmet managed to keep his feet in bounds to complete the catch, setting the Steelers up to win the game with just over 90 seconds to play:

Whilst The Helmet Catch by David Tyree in Super Bowl XLII  remains the go-to catch when it comes to hauling the ball in using both your head and your hands, there’s no denying that what Brown was able to pull off, especially given the limited space he had to work with down the sideline, means that you can make the argument it was the more difficult and therefore more impressive catch to make.

Sadly a number of problems both on and off the field have hurt his legacy in recent years, but there is no doubt that when you look back on the first part of his career, there was a Hall of Famer in the making.