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Rule #1 in team sports should be easy to remember. There is no “I” in the word “Team”. The personal issues of any single player should never interfere with the team’s goals and objectives.
Tampa Bay wide receiver Antonio Brown doesn’t seem to grasp that basic sports lesson. As a result, he is, once again, filing for unemployment after his latest NFL employer terminated his contract today.
When I heard about the very talented but mentally fragile Antonio Brown taking off his helmet, pads, and jersey along the sidelines last Sunday during the third quarter of the Bucs’ game at the New York Jets and then dancing his way into the Tampa Bay locker room, I knew we would be in for another wild week.
The saga of Antonio Brown is one of an exceptional talent on the field who is unable to stop him from self-destructing at some point at every stop along the way.
We have witnessed several years of odd escapades involving this unique NFL wide receiver. I wrote about it back in 2019. For every good thing you can find about Antonio Brown the receiver, there is another side of him which will find a way to self-destruct at some point. He usually hurts himself more than the teams he plays for.
Tampa Bay really needed Antonio Brown-the-wide-receiver right now. Several other wide receivers for the Bucs have been unavailable or injured recently. Legendary quarterback Tom Brady was counting on AB to be one of his primary targets heading into the NFL playoffs as Tampa Bay defends its NFL title.
Instead, Tampa Bay was given another sad display of Antonio Brown-the-look-at-me diva the past several days. Brown has been nursing a bad ankle recently and, after checking with the team trainers, still decided to play in Sunday’s game against the Jets.
After grabbing three passes from Brady for just 26 yards on Sunday, Brown came to the sidelines and concluded that his ankle hurt too badly to play anymore. Apparently, the coaches strongly suggested (as they are known to do) that he should get back onto the field. That’s what prompted Antonio Brown to come unglued along the sidelines and make his grand exit from the field Sunday afternoon.
We are learning today that Antonio Brown (who was due about $1 million in player incentive bonus money for his catches and yardage totals for this season) took his agent with him to visit with the Bucs’ management last week (prior to the Jets game). He asked for his current contract be adjusted so that his 2021 incentives-based bonus money would be converted to a guaranteed payment.
The Tampa Bay front office brass told him, “Nope”.
As is the case with all of the other Antonio Brown stories, there seems to be a little bit more information which will become known nearly every day following one of his outrageous outbursts. This week has been no different.
In today’s “All about me” social media world, Antonio Brown and his Twitter account talked too much this week while he should have been cooling off, healing-up, and apologizing profusely. Once he hit the “Send” button, the damage had been done and any bridges burned.
Antonio Brown may or may not have played in his final NFL game last weekend. He is just 33 years of age and, when healthy, is still productive on the football field. The former Pittsburgh Steeler-Oakland Raider-New England Patriot-Tampa Bay wide receiver has enough God-given skills on the football field to have earned millions of dollars, won any number of post-season accolades, and, last year, earned his first Super Bowl ring in his first season with Tampa Bay.
Antonio Brown – the football player – was talented enough to be named to the NFL’s All Decade Team (2010-2019).
The only person Antonio Brown hasn’t been able to beat on the football field has been himself.
It’s not like he started out as a prima donna, though.
Though he was a very talented high school football player in the Miami, Florida area, his high school grades kept him from attending Florida State. Instead, Brown left for the colder climate of Central Michigan. He played three years of college football for the Chippewas and excelled at punt and kick returns in addition to playing wide receiver.
Antonio Brown decided to try the NFL after three years in college and was eventually selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the sixth round of the 2010 draft. He signed a three-year contract worth a total value of $1.28 million.
Antonio Brown’s ability on special teams would become of great value to the Steelers. In his second year with Pittsburgh (2011), Antonio Brown became the first player in NFL history to have over 1,000 yards in pass receptions and another 1,000 yards in special teams return yardage (punts and kickoffs). He was selected to his first NFL Pro Bowl game that season.
In July, 2012, Brown was rewarded by the Steelers with a five-year, $42.5 million contract extension which included an $8.5 million signing bonus.
Though Antonio Brown would continue to have a series of successful years on the field for the Steelers, he took a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit during the 2015 NFL Playoffs from Cincinnati’s notoriously dirty linebacker, Vontaze Burfict. I remember seeing that hit (one of many cheap shots inflicted by Burfict over his career) and wondered if Antonio Brown would have any lingering brain issues (CTE, perhaps) down the road.
Keep that in mind as we continue.
The next year, after making his fifth consecutive All Pro Team, Antonio Brown used his cell phone to televise the team’s locker room celebration (via Facebook) after a playoff win against Kansas City in January, 2017. He had been asked by quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and other teammates not to do it. While AB’s camera was secretly rolling, Steelers head football coach Mike Tomlin was captured making some disparaging comments about the team’s next opponent, New England. Tomlin would immediately apologize for his remarks, Brown was disciplined, and the Steelers would be clobbered the following week against New England 36-17.
Only later would we learn that Antonio Brown had been paid $244,000 by Facebook before the season to create content for the social media company.
From there, things seemed to go on a steep downhill slide for Antonio Brown.
December, 2018: Deactivated for Steelers’ Week 17 game after reportedly throwing a ball at a teammate in practice
March, 2019: Traded by Pittsburgh Steelers to Oakland Raiders for 3rd- and 5th-round picks
July, 2019: Placed on non-football injury list (frostbite on feet from cryotherapy)
August, 2019: Missed Raiders training camp practices due to helmet grievances
September 7, 2019: Released from Raiders after Instagram post asking for his release
September 9, 2019: Signed 1-year deal worth up to $15M with New England Patriots
September 10-16, 2019: Ex-trainer Britney Taylor accuses Brown of sexual assault. Sports Illustrated reports 2nd incident of sexual misconduct
September 20, 2019: Released by Patriots
January 22, 2020: Charged with felony burglary with battery and 2 misdemeanors for incident with moving truck company. Pleaded no contest and did not receive jail time
July 31, 2020: Suspended 8 games for multiple violations of NFL’s personal conduct policy
October 27, 2020: Signed 1-year contract with Tampa Bay Buccaneers
February 7, 2021: Caught 5 passes, including a TD, as the Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV
May 25, 2021: Re-signed new incentive-laden contract with Buccaneers
December 2, 2021: Suspended 3 games for violating NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 protocols. The league and players’ union found that Brown was among three players who misrepresented their vaccination statuses
January 2, 2022: Took equipment off and runs off field during game at Jets. Coach Bruce Arians said, “He is no longer a Buc”
January 5, 2022: Says Bucs tried to make him play through ankle injury, which is why he abruptly left Jets game.
January 6, 2022: Tampa Bay terminated the contract of Antonio Brown.
The years of helmet-to-helmet contact which Antonio Brown has endured as a wide receiver and return man on special teams in college and professional football make you wonder how much of AB’s bizarre actions over the past few years may be related to brain injuries from playing football.
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma. Stage 2 CTE, which may only be diagnosed via an autopsy, has been associated with symptoms such as aggression, impulsivity, depression, anxiety, paranoia, substance abuse, and suicidal ideation.
There is a growing list of former NFL football players who have died of CTE-related issues at a relatively early age. In addition to such well-known players such as Steelers Hall-of-Fame center Mike Webster and Chargers’ linebacker Junior Seau, 2021 brought sad news that former Tampa Bay All-Pro defensive back Vincent Jackson (age 38, who died alone in a hotel room last February) and defensive back Philip Adams (age 32, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot after killing six other people in South Carolina last April) both suffered from Stage 2 CTE.
Though Antonio Brown (age 33) will no doubt try to convince another NFL team that he still has enough talent to play football in the league, it’s high time that someone (his family, friends, and former coaches) implores him to seek professional evaluation of his mental health soon.
Love him or loathe him right now, Antonio Brown has provided a lot of entertainment news on and off the field over his career. I certainly hope that the next news we hear about AB will relate to some good news concerning his mental state.