The Oakland Raiders announced Saturday morning that they have terminated the contract of wide receiver Antonio Brown and thus released him.
Brown, whom the Raiders acquired via a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers in March, asked for his release Saturday morning due to him seemingly being unhappy with the recent fines the team assessed him in addition to voiding his guaranteed money to recent actions of his. The raiders granted him his wish just one day after Brown reportedly delivered an emotional apology to the rest of his teammates during a morning meeting.
The Raiders acquired Brown from the Steelers in March in exchange for a third and fifth-round draft pick. They then immediately turned around and made Brown the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL once again.
Its been an interesting, yet tumultuous, last several weeks for the Raiders and Brown. For starters, Brown missed nearly all of training camp after he burned his feet by entering a cryotherapy machine without the proper footwear. He saw a foot specialist during that down time and missed practice in doing so. Brown also threw a tantrum related to him no longer being allowed to wear a now-outdated and unapproved helmet model that he has worn since the beginning of his career. That helmet fiasco also resulted in missed practice time.
The Raiders fined Brown for his missed practice time and that didn’t set well with the wide receiver and it reportedly led to a confrontation of some sorts with Raiders general manager Mike Mayock. Brown, however, returned to the Raiders on Friday and then was allowed to resume practicing after first apologizing to his teammates. Later in the day, however, Brown was reportedly hit with more fines and he released a video Friday night on his social media accounts that voiced his displeasure and it included a recently taped phone conversation with Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.
The raiders voided Brown’s future guarantees in his contract as part of their recent discipline of him and the wide receiver essentially begged the team to release him Saturday morning via social media. The Raiders obliged.
Brown is now a free agent and does not need to pass through waivers. It will be interesting to see if another team now wants to sign him.
Browns agent, Drew Rosenhaus, has since released a statement regrading his client’s current status.
“Now that Antonio is a free agent, we are focused on the future and I will immediately work on signing him to a new team. Antonio is looking forward to a new beginning,” per Rosenhaus.
