PITTSBURGH — Art Rooney II began the groundwork on making Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown a part of the organization “for life” last summer.

The team’s longtime president pulled his occasionally eccentric star aside and promised that rewarding Brown for his record-breaking work would be a top priority in 2017.

“Once he gives you his word, he sticks to his word,” Brown said.

And then some.

The Steelers made Brown the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL when they signed him to a five-year deal worth more than $72 million on Monday night. It was an emphatic vote of confidence that the 28-year-old can extend his prime well into his 30s for a team that believes the window to a championship remains open so long as Brown is out there chasing down passes from Ben Roethlisberger.

“He’s one of the hardest-working players we’ve ever had on our team,” Rooney said on Tuesday. “He leads by example.”

Yet for all of Brown’s gaudy numbers, including an NFL-high 632 receptions since breaking into the league as a rookie in 2010, his resume is lacking in one very specific category: Super Bowl titles. It’s that pursuit — and not the riches that come along with being the most well-compensated person at what you do in the world — that Brown insists will be his focus through 2021. And perhaps beyond.

“All the Steeler greats, all those guys have (rings),” Brown said.

Brown does not. There was a near-miss in 2010 when Pittsburgh fell to Green Bay in the Super Bowl, a team on which Brown was more developmental role player than unstoppable force. He played a far larger role in 2016, when the Steelers won the AFC North and reached the AFC championship game before getting blown out by New England. Brown caught seven passes for 77 yards in the 36-17 defeat following a bumpy week in which he was forced to apologize for livestreaming from Pittsburgh’s victorious locker room a week earlier at Kansas City.

Rooney likened Brown’s behavior to “little annoyances,” one that had no impact on the team’s interest in keeping him in the fold for the rest of the decade.

“He has a lot of accolades,” Rooney said. “But there’s really only one thing on his mind and our mind, and that’s bringing another Super Bowl here.”

Brown shared the news of his deal with Roethlisberger on Monday night. Asked if he told Roethlisberger that he needs the quarterback around, Brown smiled and replied “that’s always the topic.” Brown hardly appears concerned about Roethlisberger’s vague hints at retirement. And it’s unlikely Brown would have agreed to lock up his long-term future with the understanding he’d have to break in a new quarterback in the process.