Antonio Brown Fires Private Chef In Bad Breakup

Antonio Brown stuck a fork in his private chef -- who was one of his close friends -- and it's clear it was a bad breakup.

The Pittsburgh Steelers superstar was inseparable from Chef Niko ever since he hired him earlier this year ... and they would often post videos of each other on Snapchat.

In fact, our friends at "For The Win" just published a story about how close the two were. The story also details Niko's battle with drug addiction and how he's conquering it.

But something went down between Brown and Niko this week ... something bad ... because the NFL star fired the chef and in a new video, Niko makes it clear the relationship is OVER.

"I thought he was my friend and that's not the case I guess."

Neither Brown nor Niko have revealed what happened behind the scenes. Brown issued a "new chef alert" Monday night to announce Niko has been replaced.