Antonio Brown joined some pretty impressive company when his teammates voted him the 2015 Steelers Most Valuable Player, becoming the fourth player to win MVP honors three times.
The others who have done so include two Hall of Famers in Jerome Bettis and Rod Woodson, and the Steelers all-time leading receiver Hines Ward.
The best photos of WR Antonio Brown from the 2015 season.
"It's a tremendous honor to be mentioned with those three guys, and to win this," said Brown. "It tells what I mean to my teammates and speaks volumes about what they think about me. It's a great individual award, but it's always about the team.
"I am a guy who likes to lead by example. Putting in the extra work, fine tuning my game with the details, and buying in to what people don't want to do, the extra time, the nitty gritty work to help my team."
Brown's work ethic, which was evident as he was once again the last player off the field on Wednesday, is one of the reasons he has the respect of his teammates.
"It goes beyond the plays that he makes when you are talking about being recognized like that," said Coach Mike Tomlin. "They see what he does day to day. They see the labor that produces the work. That probably increases the appreciation."
Brown, who previously won MVP honors in 2011 and 2013, ranks second in the NFL in receptions with 123, receiving yards with 1,647 and yards per game at 109.8. He set an NFL record for most receptions in three consecutive seasons with 362 and is the first player in NFL history to record two games with 15 or more receptions in a single season.
"There is nothing in the game of football from that position that he can't do," said Randy Moss, who played WR for 14 seasons in the NFL and is now an analyst for FOX Sports. "That is what I like to see from a wide receiver. As far as his repertoire from that position, he can go deep on you, he can catch an intermediate ball and score, and he can catch a hitch and score.
"There are a lot of things he is able to do that make him a complete receiver. He plays bigger than he is and that is what I like about him. You see big hits, you see guys slamming him. He is like the energizer bunny. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking."
Brown, who was selected to his fourth Pro Bowl, has 123 receptions for 1,647 yards and nine touchdowns through 15 games. It's the second consecutive year he has recorded at least 120 receptions and 1,600 receiving yards, establishing new team records. He also is the first player in team history to reach 1,500 yards from scrimmage in three straight seasons.
Brown's top receiving game of 2015 came against the Oakland Raiders on Nov. 8 when he lit it up with 17 receptions for 284 yards, both Steelers' single-game records, and a total of 306 yards from scrimmage, also a single-game record. "He is exceptional," said Steelers Hall of Fame receiver John Stallworth. "He does it and he does it extremely well. He works extremely hard. I would put him right up there with any wide receiver in the league.
"He runs with the ball, he catches the ball extremely well. He has good quickness left to right. He is fast. I can't think of anything he doesn't do well. He goes up after the ball well. He is a very intelligent young man. He has all of the skills."
