It used to be the Steelers Way or the highway for any of their disgruntled players. Antonio Brown is showing it’s possible to beat the black and gold at their own game.

That’s because winning off the field in the NFL now involves the shrewd use of social media.

Antonio Brown has it; the Steelers not so much.

Indeed, Brown seemed to spike the ball on the Steelers after using a meeting with team owner Art Rooney II to drive the narrative that it’s a mutual decision that he be traded away.

That old Steelers Way of controlling players had been a black-and-golden rule under the original Art Rooney – aka the Chief – and his savvy successor, Dan Rooney. Now, it seems like so much ancient history after Art II got taken to social media school by Antonio.

Brown, who has had his own share of blunders on Instagram and Twitter, came back strong during his meeting with the Steelers President. After initially saying he would not meet with Rooney, Brown and the seemingly timid team owner came face-to-face.

It was Brown, who insisted upon a smiling, arm-in-arm picture with Rooney. The receiver then promptly posted it on Twitter, and it won the day for him at the expense of the Steelers and Rooney.

The message: If Brown is so bad, so disruptive, why is the smiling Steelers’ owner’s arm around him?

In addition, it was Brown’s view of the meeting, reinforced in the text that accompanied the photo, that drove the narrative of what transpired.

Brown’s interpretation was the two mutually decided it was time to “move on.” That means a trade, which was what Brown’s been after all along.

Now, Brown stands to get everything he wants -- a big new, guaranteed contract with new team and a possible contender.

The Steelers are left with a glaring vacancy in their once high-flying receiving corps, a huge hole in their salary cap, and little means to patch things up, at least for 2019. This as aging Ben Roethlisberger loses another year on his rapidly closing Super Bowl window.

Oh yeah, and there’s still plenty of debate over what kind of draft pick the Steelers will be able to pluck away from any team interested in trading for Brown’s services.

Check out the Steelers Update Podcast for how all this is playing out in Pittsburgh sports media -- and among fans:

Spoiler Alert: None of it it is pretty for the Steelers, Rooney and Mike Tomlin, who clearly gave Antonio too much rope over the years. For as much as Steelers Nation now detests Brown and his tactics, they recognize strength, savvy and strategy. In other words, all those things Antonio Brown has displayed on social media to get exactly what he wants from the once-begrudging, all-but-unbeatable Steelers when it came to player personnel.

NOTE: John Luciew is an award-winning reporter for PennLive and a 25-year Steelers season ticket-holder. His podcast is presented from the obsessively over-informed perspective of an avid Steelers’ fan.