Pouncey: 'A good phone conversation' can resolve Brown-Steelers dispute

A couple of Pittsburgh Steelers held court with media members at the Pro Bowl on Wednesday, shedding some light on the ongoing dispute between the team and disgruntled receiver Antonio Brown.

Brown has yet to speak to the media or his teammates since being held out of the team's final game in Week 17. But Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey believes everything can be resolved with a phone call.

"When you look at the bigger picture, there has been so much accomplished by everyone there, you can't tell me a good phone conversation or a sitdown can't get things right," he said. "Hopefully it comes to that because things have been very memorable there."

JuJu Smith-Schuster said he has reached out to his fellow receiver but has yet to hear from Brown, who has shared through Instagram that he's currently vacationing in the Caribbean.

Though Brown is said to have walked out on his teammates before a must-win game, Smith-Schuster said he'd be welcomed back into the locker room.

"At the end of the day, he is our teammate, he is our guy. So, yeah," he said.

Pouncey also disputed reports that the controversy began when Brown threw a football at quarterback Ben Roethlisberger during a team walkthrough.

"The things that were reported didn't happen," he said. "That didn't happen. C'mon man, you're talking about grown men."

He did concede there is ongoing tension within the group but insists all wounds are mended with time.

"From my opinion, it's more of a time thing. Time heals everything," Pouncey said.

"Just let things pass over. I know it's a disappointing season, trust me," he continued. "We've got a lot of great players on the team, we should be in the playoffs playing ... When you're winning, everything's great. When you have a couple losses back to back like that, you can always find reasons not to like a certain thing."