Antonio Brown: "It's My New Name, Ronald... It's Top Secret. From Now On, Address Me As Ronald."

Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers leads the NFL in receptions and now, apparently, in identity crises. Some questions and non-answers from a conversation with reporters yesterday, as captured by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Reporters: AB, what about your cleats this week?

Brown: It’s top secret. And now you guys call me Ronald.

What other players do you (pay attention to when you don’t play them?)

Ronald. I’m watching Ronald every day.

Any lingering effects from that hip injury you had a couple weeks ago?

There’s effects against Ronald everywhere.

What’s the whole Ronald thing?

I can’t tell you. It’s top secret. It’s my new name — Ronald. From now on call me Ronald. I can’t (explain). It’s top secret. From now on, address me as Ronald.

Okay, buddy.

Some possibilities here: an alter ego, a way to show his love of McDonald’s, a sign that there are just too many “A” names in his life (his four kids are Antonio Jr., Autonomy, Ali and Antanyiah). Or, most likely and also most boring, it’s a gimmick to hype up his cleats for Sunday’s game against the Giants.

Weird, sure, but if the NFL’s already policed him this year for his shoes and his dancing, he’s got to express himself somehow.

[ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]