Antonio Brown is perhaps the NFL's best wide receiver, and his performances on the field have put the Pittsburgh Steelers among the ranks of this year's Super Bowl contenders. Tomorrow, Brown's team will be traveling to Miami to face the Dolphins, and Brown will be wearing a special set of cleats to honor Kimbo Slice and Jose Fernandez, both local Miami athletes who passed away this year.
Kimbo Slice (5-2, 1 NC) died of heart failure in June at just 42 years old. He was scheduled to headline Bellator MMA's London show in July against James Thompson, whom he memorably defeated by 3rd round TKO at EliteXC. Kimbo was a massive ratings success for EliteXC, UFC, and Bellator MMA, with peak viewership numbers totaling as high as 6.5 million. His backyard brawls in Miami have millions of views on Youtube.
Fernandez was a star pitcher for Major League Baseball's Miami Marlins, earning All-Star honors in both 2013 and 2016. He and two others were killed in a boating accident last month, just one day before he was scheduled to start against the New York Mets. The 25-year-old had his jersey number retired by the Marlins, but not before all of his teammates wore #16 for the Mets game.
Earlier in the season, Brown had worn special cleats to honor Arnold Palmer, the legendary golfer who died on September 25th, the same day as Fernandez. Last week against the New York Jets, he wore Muhammad Ali tribute cleats, but was nearly benched by the NFL unless he took them off. Because Brown's clears for Kimbo and Fernandez do not match the uniform colors of the Steelers, he won't be allowed to wear them during the game, but can have them on for pregame warm-ups.