Ryan Clark was one of the very first people in the public space who was willing to come out and say something negative about former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown while the national media was behind him in the buildup to his trade to the Oakland Raiders.
So it’s understandable that he’s feeling vindicated now and taking his victory lap after Brown recently revealed the depth of his pettiness, going after JuJu Smith-Schuster when a fan reminded the wide receiver that his young peer was voted the team’s MVP a year ago.
“I think the world is kind of starting to see it now”, Clark said of Brown’s true self. “Even other players around the league who have no affiliation with the Oakland Raiders, with the Pittsburgh Steelers, they’re kind of over the antics. They know that there is a code that has been broken here with Antonio Brown”.
“When you go after JuJu Smith-Schuster, even in answering Antonio’s initial Tweet, was still very respectful”, he added. “And I’m not necessarily sure what it does for Antonio to reveal a DM from a college guy who is trying to get better showing you the utmost respect by reaching out to you”.
Even Smith-Schuster, who has been nothing but deferent to Brown throughout his entire career and even throughout the entire breakup process, reached a point once that happened that he decided that this is who Brown really is.
“He’s showing his true colors of not being a good teammate, and I am now finally showing you that he is just not a good human”, Clark said. He continued to say that there is no way that we can rationalize all of his behavior outside of the simple explanation that “he’s just not a good dude”.
“What he’s doing now is showing the world that he’s different behind that sly smile. He’s different behind the touchdown dances, behind the Dancing With the Stars antics”, the former Steelers safety said. “There’s a different individual and human inside or behind that 84 that we hadn’t yet seen. And now each and every day with the more money he gets, with the more attention he gets, he’s starting to show us who he really is”.
As has been discussed in the interim, Brown is now Jon Gruden and Mike Mayock’s problem. And in Clark’s opinion, they are not going to get him to stop, because “they’ll be asking him to stop being himself, because this is who dude is. He hid it long enough, he was able to keep it away from the public as long as he possibly could, but now he just can’t help himself because now everybody’s not doting over him”.
It’s still somewhat stunning to think of where we find ourselves now compared to a year ago. So much of Brown’s public façade has unraveled since then to the point that he has likely done very real and permanent damage to his reputation.
