Has it been too long since you’ve heard about Antonio Brown? Then boy is today your lucky day. Brown, who played for nine seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers and then one game for the New England Patriots via the Oakland Raiders, has lost quite a bit, aside from his sanity, over the course of the past year. He is looking to get some of it back by offering apologies to all who will accept them.
The perennial All-Pro took to Instagram to post the following message, which you can read in its entirely below, but he makes it pretty clear that he wants to get back into the NFL. “Over the past few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to think about everything that’s transpired and I am deeply sorry to all who I’ve offended”, he said.
“I do know that if I’m ever given the opportunity to play the game that I love, I’m going to work extremely hard to show the world how much I appreciate another chance”, he added. “To the organizations that I offended, I offer my sincere apology to you and my hope is that you forgive me and help me move on from this minor setback. I look forward to competing and helping a team reach their goals”.
Brown should be reminded that the Steelers did virtually everything reasonable in their power to repair the bonds between themselves and the star wide receiver that he chose himself to sever. Even while he went on social media and television interview rants laying into his then-current employers, the front office maintained that they were not looking to trade him.
That only began to come to a head in earnest after he gave a lengthy ESPN interview that was clearly designed to force the team’s hand and get the wheels in motion. And even then, the Steelers would only be willing to trade him for reasonable compensation. What they ended up getting seemed light initially, but afterwards was proven to be quite a haul, given the circumstances.
Art Rooney II literally had to fly down to Florida to meet him face to face before he was willing to start talking to teams about trading him. And he only did that because Brown was literally not returning phone calls from the team.
Meanwhile, he subsequently deliberately went AWOL with the Raiders—he posted a video to social media of himself celebrating with great jubilation when they announced he was released—only to be hit with some serious allegations of sexual assault that eventually prompted the Patriots to release him as well.
Antonio Brown the wide receiver is truly a generational talent and arguably the best in Steelers history. During his nine seasons, he recorded 837 receptions for 11,207 yards and scored 74 touchdowns. His six-season run from 2013 to 2018 is one of the most remarkable of all time, in which span of time he accounted for 686 receptions for 9145 yards and 67 touchdowns.
And then he blew it all. And it may well be far too late to salvage any of it.
