One of the more wild NFL sagas in recent memory was former Pittsburgh Steelers WR Antonio Brown and his (very) short-lived tenure with the then Oakland Raiders. When Brown’s relationship with the Steelers became untenable, Kevin Colbert traded him to the Raiders for a third- and fifth-round pick in the 2019 offseason.
For a player of Brown’s caliber, that seemed like the bargain of a lifetime for the Raiders. He was fresh off six-straight Pro Bowl appearances, multiple first-team All-Pro selections and a few years where he was the first or second runner-up for AP Offensive Player of the Year. There was all sorts of drama that offseason between Brown and the Raiders, amplified by the team being on HBO’s Hard Knocks. He ended up getting released before the start of the regular season.
There was the cryotherapy incident where Brown’s feet were damaged, causing him to miss a good deal of training camp, and his refusal to wear the helmet they were providing him. Then there was his fight with Mike Mayock, which ended up being the final straw. Despite all of that, Derek Carr still speaks pretty highly of Brown in certain regards. He was recently asked about having him as a teammate on Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take on YouTube.
“I loved AB. Even at the end, he was like, ‘Derek Carr, good dude, but couldn’t handle AB.’ And I was like, ‘You know what, you’re probably right,'” Carr said. “I thought I was gonna win MVP that year. Oh my gosh, he’s the hardest practicing player I’ve ever seen in my life. And he practices hard, he competes at just a different level, and hopefully he’s a Hall of Famer.”
Had things worked out, they very well could have had a special connection as a quarterback and receiver. Carr was in the midst of his four-straight seasons in which he threw for over 4,000 yards. He was playing some of the best football of his life. It is pretty amusing to me that Carr still speaks so highly of Brown despite the wild way in which he forced his way off the Raiders.
After the frostbitten feet incident, when Brown returned to practice, Carr connected on some deep passes with Brown before his trainer called it a day. Those couple routes left quite the impression on Carr and left him thinking of lofty goals for the 2019 season.
“He comes out in training camp, he runs a post corner and usually we run the post corner and we want him flat at about 25, 30 yards,” Carr said. “This man runs a post corner and takes off to the back pylon, and I’m like, ‘Oh crap.’ I had to throw this thing like 70 yards. He just runs it down, catches it…He comes running back, he’s like, ‘Let’s go again.’ Said, ‘Throw me a go [route].’
“He goes over there, runs a go. I launch this go route, he freaking takes off. Touchdown. I’m looking at [Jon] Gruden like, ‘Bro, I might throw for 6,000 yards.'”
There is a reason that Brown is regarded as one of the best receivers of all time — an opinion that would be held by more people if some of the off-field stuff never occurred. Brown ended up going to the New England Patriots for one game before being released to cap an odd 2019 season.
“I really enjoyed my time [with Brown]. Like, you sit down one on one, you have a great conversation,” Carr said. “He’s awesome. But then he’ll do something that’s just hilarious.”
It would be easy for Carr to feel a certain type of way about Brown’s antics that cost him an opportunity for what he thought could be his best season. And maybe that was the case at the time, but now he just looks back on it and laughs.
As for Brown being an eventual Hall of Famer as Carr suggests, the stats definitely say he will get in. He had one of the most dominant stretches a receiver has ever had. The issue is everything else other than his on-field play. Some Hall of Fame voters spoke about Brown’s candidacy last year and it sounded like Brown will need to wait an extended amount of time, if he gets in at all.
