It was the disrobing seen ’round the world.
On Sunday afternoon, Antonio Brown and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were playing the Jets at Met Life Stadium. The Jets were winning in the middle of the third quarter when AB finally gave us all what we knew would eventually happen.
A selfish moment that embarrassed his team and teammates.
It’s something he’s done with every team he’s been with during his incredible, yet now forever marred NFL career.
And while his live disrobing was shocking, his motives and antics were not.
Antonio Brown built an NFL career that was Hall of Famer worthy, capped off by his first Super Bowl victory last season with the Bucs.
But with his NFL career lives an off-field career that has now, unfortunately, overshadowed the former sixth-round draft pick’s highly successful on-field accomplishments.
And he has no one to blame but himself.
Many, like Tom Brady, have come to Brown’s defense. That’s understandable.
Does he have mental health issues? Does he have CTE?
Maybe to the former. Currently, the ability to diagnose the latter in living players doesn’t exist.
Regardless, Brown’s behavior should not be excused or rationalized due to either.
Instead, Brown should be held accountable for one of the most embarrassing and childish displays of behavior in NFL history, especially since it’s not the first time that he’s humiliated an organization.
Brown is an opportunist with a penchant for scapegoating, conflict and embarrassment. And that pattern of behavior destroys the sympathy for any “suffering” his defenders want to employ.
Team Troublemaker
With the Steelers, Brown went live on social media and broadcast a private team meeting from the locker room.
In January of 2019, the Steelers needed to beat the Bengals and have the Browns beat the Ravens in order to make the playoffs. The team did just that, but absent from the game was Brown. He essentially ghosted the team that Friday and Saturday and then his agent let coach Tomlin know he was ready to play. But Tomlin doesn’t play those games so Brown wasn’t allowed to dress for the game.
In response, Brown took to social media to post one of his cryptic, “I’m the misunderstood victim” type messages that became his go-to maneuver when things don’t go his way.
Those antics sealed his fate and Pittsburgh traded him to the Raiders for a third and fifth-round draft pick, which ended up being Dionte Johnson and Zach Gentry.
A few months later, he ignited a Twitter attack on former teammate JuJu Smith-Schuster for being stripped of the ball in a late-season game against the Saints a few months prior.
Loss of a #1 receiver should be hard, but in light of his brief, tumultuous tenure with the Raiders, it was addition through subtraction for the Steelers.
After a much-hyped arrival in Oakland, things soured quickly.
He had frostbitten feet from a cryotherapy mishap and fought the NFL over a helmet issue, preventing him from practicing.
Then he simply decided to skip practice without approval, resulting in fines by the Raiders.
And guess what he did in response?
Yes, AB posted the fine letter from GM Mike Mayock to Twitter, complete with ridiculous “devil is a lie” and his prerequisite “look at me, I’m a victim” type messaging.
Brown doubled down by releasing a Nike-like video about himself, portraying himself as a hard worker, family man and a misunderstood victim. But he also included a private conversation between himself and Jon Gruden in the video, once again violating a team’s trust and privacy.
Then, after confrontations with Mayock and outbursts at practice, the team fined him $215,000, voided the guaranteed $29 million in his contract and eventually released him.
In response, Brown made another video showing his happiness at being released.
Antonio Brown was well aware of his actions and intent. He always has been.
They are well-crafted, devious strategies. He employs the blame game and outrageous antics to be rid of his current situation and announce his new endeavor.
He did it to get out of Pittsburgh and he did it to get out of Oakland in order to play with Tom Brady and the Patriots.
But after sexual assault allegations hit the headlines, the Patriots released him.
A year later he reunited with Brady and Bruce Arians in Tampa Bay and won a Super Bowl.
A year later, he suffered injuries, faced allegations of not paying his staff and was given a three-game suspension for violating the league’s health and safety protocols.
All of those incidents contributed to the embarrassing display in Met Life Stadium on Sunday.
Yet Brown feels no humiliation or embarrassment.
Rather, it’s simply par for the course for a selfish individual who loves to game those around him.
Why else would he drop a “rap” track an hour after his New Jersey strip tease and jumping jacks demonstration?
Why else would he be sitting courtside at the Brooklyn Nets game Monday night?
Antonio Brown is well aware of his actions and intent. He’s proven that time and time again.
When he wants to do something, regardless of the consequences or harm it causes others, he stands unapologetic in his decision to do it.
On Sunday he quit on his team and embarrassed himself. He has no remorse and continues to use the humiliation he causes others and himself as fuel for the fodder he creates in life.
And that’s how you know Antonio Brown knows damn well what he’s doing.
