Antonio Brown really needs to stop giving me stuff to write about, but in spite of the fact that he has been a member of the Oakland Raiders for nearly a month now, it seems he still can’t get over the Pittsburgh Steelers, even while he is busy telling Steelers fans essentially to get over him.
And he sunk to a new low yesterday with his completely unnecessary shot at former teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster when somebody pointed out to him that the latter was voted the team’s Most Valuable Player by his peers last season.
Once again, he manages to confirm that everything we previously thought that made him a small, fragile person at his core is indeed the case. And if there was any doubt remaining that he was upset about the vote, he added at the end of his remark about Smith-Schuster ‘fumbling the playoffs away’, “check the list”, referring to the team’s list of MVPs, where he has been voted the team’s MVP every other year, in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017.
It’s truly astounding to me, even though rationally I know that it shouldn’t be, how incapable this 30-year-old adult is of having any sort of meaningful filter not just on his mouth but on his emotions, so much so that they bleed out through his mouth on occasion when he doesn’t want it to.
And I can only imagine what Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock are thinking right now as Brown continues to behave in the same manner toward his former team in spite of the separation, perhaps counting down the days until he has a reason to be upset with them next.
The more he opens his mouth, the less support he has, both in the national media and among his peers. A number of players from across the spectrum responded to Brown’s ill-advised comment yesterday afternoon, including former Baltimore Ravens safety Eric Weddle, who called it “a childish move” and added, “no respect for this dude”. Houston Texans safety Justin Reid said, “I can’t wait to smash this dude”.
No need for that. Showing true colors right here. No respect for this dude
— Eric Weddle (@weddlesbeard) April 7, 2019
Brown got everything he wanted this offseason except for the one thing that he had complete control of, which was dignity and respect. It is his own behavior and nothing else that has damaged his reputation, and it will only continue to get worse if he continues to show all resistance to any kind of basic etiquette.
He’s the Raiders’ problem now, and it’s appearing more and more likely that the ‘problem’ part is an inevitability rather than a possibility. In hindsight, it’s impressive that the Steelers were able to ‘contain’ him for as long as they had.
