I can’t imagine there are too many people left who sincerely think that all of Antonio Brown’s antics over the course of the past calendar year have been a carefully orchestrated attempt to get what he wants. While there may have been some pre-planning involved in some portions of the journey, by and large, this has been an unstable man flying by the seat of his pants, convinced that he’s always right.
Until his agent tells him otherwise, and makes him delete some nasty Tweets. Like what happened yesterday.
With Brown soon scheduled to be interviewed by the NFL stemming from multiple incidents involving his behavior toward women, including accusations of rape, and documented evidence of harassment of a witness, he went on an anti-NFL rant yesterday that he later deleted. Not that the internet ever forgets.
“Imagine conforming to a system giving it a 100 percent to see them treat me like this is unfairly [sic]! Making money of my swear and blood. F–k the NFL I’ll never play in that sh-t treat black people the worse [sic]! Clear my name and go f–k your self”, it read.
He later deleted that message and posted the following:
“I’m just very frustrated right now with the false allegations and slander to my name. I love football and I miss it. I just want to play and I’m very emotional about that. I’m determined to make my way back to the NFL asap”.
I’m just very frustrated right now with the false allegations and slander to my name. I love football and I miss it. I just want to play and I’m very emotional about that. I’m determined to make my way back to the NFL asap
— AB (@AB84) November 7, 2019
Brown has seemingly gone back and forth, even going back to when he was still a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, about whether or not he will continue to play football. By and large, the shifts in his viewpoint have coincided with whether or not it looked as though he was going to get what he wanted, whatever that might have been at the time.
The Steelers originally traded Brown to the Oakland Raiders back in March in exchange for a third-round draft pick and a fifth. They were criticized for getting so little in return for arguably the greatest wide receiver in the game—only to see the Raiders outright release him before the start of the season.
The New England Patriots would end up picking him up, and he even played in one game, catching a touchdown pass from Tom Brady—the first and only touchdown of his career not thrown by Ben Roethlisberger.
But after the most recent wave of allegations surfaced, and reporters no longer accepted Bill Belichick’s usual ‘we’re on to Cincinnati’ in response to serious off-field issues, the Patriots, too, released him. In the event that any team signs him, he is expected to be placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, pending the results of the investigation for which he is to be interviewed.
