According to Antonio Brown, superstar wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, there are three crucial, incontrovertible ways to “drip.”

“You got to have the smile,” he tells me, launching into an extemporaneous free lesson on personal swag. “The first time someone sees you smile, they gotta know you mean business.” Second, “you gotta have the right smell for the drip. When the person first meets you, they're going to get that fragrance.” (And what, pray tell, does Antonio Brown smell like? “Like Chanel!”)

“You have the fragrance drip and you got the smile drip. That's two ways to drip. Then you gotta get the fit. You can't have no basic fit. You gotta have that different fit. When you got that different fit, you ’bout to DRIP.”

Turtleneck, $2,160, by Louis Vuitton Sweater, $598, by Michael Kors / Pants (part of suit), $5,190, by Tom Ford / Watch, his own

And does Antonio Brown have that drip, you ask?

“I got all the drip,” he assures me. The divine-drip trinity.

Whatever the 30-year-old Brown has, it's working. In 2010 he was the 195th pick in the NFL draft, an undersized five-foot-ten receiver who could maybe scrape out a career as a punt returner. He was selected for the Pro Bowl in his second season, and he's made five more since, hauling in impossible sideline catches that have earned him the nickname “Tony Toe Tap” for his ability to keep his feet in bounds. His hands have the gravitational pull of small black holes—of the 174 passes fired his way last season, he dropped three. He's football's best current player not named Tom Brady, its most electric playmaker since Terrell Owens, and the most drippy since Deion Sanders wore a white bowler in a bubble bath for “Must Be the Money.”

SNAP TO IT

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FLASH SOME GREEN

The season's ultimate statement coat comes, unsurprisingly, in the ultimate statement color: money green. Coat, $4,810, pants, $810, by Prada / Jewelry, his own TOTALLY TONAL

Sticking with one color can make you look like a Power Ranger—unless you do it with fresh sneakers and an oversize shearling-collared coat. All clothing, prices upon request, by Alexander McQueen

“Maaan, I'm having a hell of a good time. It's a great time to be alive,” he says. “It's like, if you're not having fun, what are you doing it for?” In a league that is often hostile to outsize displays of personality, he plays with a rarely seen brio.

Take his hair over the years, restless and eclectic and out there. You could plot the arc of his career in hairstyles alone. (A particular highlight? The outrageous, geometric ’do he dubbed “The Lego.” Think: a high-top fade turned into a Mohawk by a particularly aesthetically challenged friend with clippers.) Then there is the fact that he might reasonably be credited with single-handedly bringing back the touchdown celebration from whatever dark place NFL’s tightly clenched executives buried it. For his troubles, Brown has racked up tens of thousands of dollars in fines, including some $35,000 for “sexually suggestive” twerking/hip-thrusting. This last fact has caused some domestic distress: “Whatever [my kids] see me do, they do. They try to hit some explicit dance moves. I told them that's for Dad only.”

Wrist slaps from the no-fun league aside, ask Antonio Brown how business is and his smile will explode—that smile drip—and he'll offer up his signature phrase: “Business is boomin’!” But a boomin' business comes with all sorts of added responsibilities. A Nike-backed “Destroy Doubt” tour this summer. The cover of the new Madden (and a 99 rating). A cameo in the music video for Drake's “God's Plan.” Those are great, sure, but so, too, is the pressure that comes with them, especially since Steelers running back and fellow scoring machine Le’Veon Bell is in the middle of a contract dispute and never showed up to training camp. (Brown, meanwhile, showed up on time—in a helicopter.)

“Antonio Brown now gets a lot of notoriety, a lot of people watching him,” says Antonio Brown. “A lot of news. A lot of expectation.”