Antonio Brown’s exit from the NFL was quick and largely unexpected. While there were occasions when a memorable farewell was in store, no one could have imagined Brown removing his jersey and shoulder pads and walking off the field mid-game.
The notion that Brown had quit was quickly offset by the fact that Brown was eventually asked to leave by former Bucs coach Bruce Arians. Regardless, Brown’s final act in the NFL was to run into the locker room from the Tampa Bay sidelines on January 2, 2022.
He continues to make headlines regularly, but not for NFL football or anything like that. (The latest AB story came from the Arena League team he owns being kicked out of the league.) Brown recently appeared on Tyreek Hill’s podcast It Needed To Be Said, where he gave a lengthy and insightful discussion led on various topics.
During the episode, Brown voices various grievances about the Buccaneers from his second and final season with the team. For example, he suggests the team tried to lure him into the facility during his four-game suspension for possessing a fake COVID vaccination card. Aside from the tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the Bucs actually wanted him to show up at the training ground during a suspension, he refused to do so because he wasn’t being paid.
He seems to think the Bucs were after him at this point and trying to chase him off, although Brown suffered from a torn ligament in his ankle that prevented him from planting and cutting his foot.
Brown also complains in various ways about Tom Brady’s TB12 guru Alex Guerrero. “He’s not a doctor, he doesn’t read an MRI,” Brown says of Guerrero. “It’s like he’s digging in my shit, like he’s thinking [will] Bring me to play But my cruciate ligament is torn. I can’t really play at all.”
Brown says it created an internal conflict between Brown and Guerrero and the team’s coach. Brown explains that he played against the Panthers after missing seven straight games despite knowing he shouldn’t, but still gained more than a hundred yards against Carolina.
Brown also says that Brady told Brown during the 2021 season that he was a “narcissist,” with Brown believing Brady was no longer trying to “support” Brown but to “control” him.
Brown explains that after the Panthers game, he tried to convince the coaching staff to give him a break before the postseason. He was told there would be no rest, especially given the number of injuries at the receiver position. Then came a call from Brady encouraging Brown to play against the Jets and telling him he would throw the ball to him during the game.
That helped Brown settle into it (the incentives he wanted to achieve helped, although Brown doesn’t mention those on the Hill podcast), with another Toradol shot, something Brown says gave him “Batman- power” to play while he knew he was injured.
But Brown does point out that he still felt “bad energy” from the situation, with mixed messages from the team and from Brady and from Guerrero not wanting to coach Brown (according to Brown) after Brown became more focused on the team’s coaches had left than Guerrero.
Brown says he paid Guerrero (and indirectly Brady) $100,000 to work with Brown during the season. “These guys like to skin me and they’re supposed to be the guys who have my back,” claims Brown. “You know you don’t calculate boys, these are your boys. Because we want you to be your best. It helps me that you do your best. So these guys are actually asking me to work with me and it’s like the team actually paid this guy to enjoy working with the players. I pay him in addition to payment [from the team] and he doesn’t even bother.”
Brown then became frustrated during the Jets game. He says he was injured, he was afraid the injury would get worse, he didn’t get the ball (despite Brady’s promise before the game).
“[Guerrero] I don’t want to work with me, I pay him, [Brady] “I don’t want to throw the ball to myself and you’re driving me crazy,” Brown says. “So, am I crazy? Screw everyone you motherfuckers, I’m out of here.”
One last point until I’m out of here (until the next post). The episode’s description suggests that Brown talks about “why Tom Brady really isn’t retired.” I listened to the whole thing and was curious about Brown’s perspective. When he digs into why Brady actually didn’t retire in early 2022, I completely missed it.
If anyone has heard anything about why Brady really isn’t retired, let me know at [email protected].
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