Photo Credit: Antonio Brown/Instagram
Antonio Brown just had a mid-game episode where he took his shirt off and stormed off of the field at the MetLife Stadium Sunday in the third quarter causing coach Bruce Arians to say he’s no longer a part of the team. “He is no longer a Buc,” he said after the team’s 28-24 victory over the NY Jets. “That’s the end of the story. Let’s talk about the guys that went out there and won the game.” When asked what lead to this departure he said, “I’m not talking about him. He’s no longer part of the Bucs.” A source told ESPN that he wasn’t benched… “He quit,” and chose not to go home on the team charter.
Antonio Brown has a meltdown at the hand of the #Jets and #BraxtonBerrios pic.twitter.com/RGhSYpyrOu
— Miller (@mmmmillah) January 2, 2022
Attempts at teammates OJ Howard and Mike Evans to calm him down failed, leading to him taking his jersey, pads and undershirt off and throwing his shirt and gloves into the stands. He did jumping jacks through the end zone and waved at fans before heading to the locker room.
MetLife stadium security said they thought he was a fan that had made it onto the field. “We thought he was a jumper,” one security officer said, adding that he asked a state trooper for a ride to the airport and was told “No.”
Arians said he had asked him to go into the game when they were down 24-10 and he said “no.” He said he didn’t know why he didn’t want to get into the game and said his sprained ankle had nothing to do with it. He refused twice and regarding his sideline episode, he says he’s “Never seen anything like that in all my years.”
Antonio Brown needed:
8 more catches to unlock a $333,333 bonus.
He also needed 55 receiving yards to unlock another $333,333 bonus.
He also needed just 1 receiving TD to unlock another $333,333 bonus.
This was a costly outburst.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) January 2, 2022
And all this comes after he just came back from a multi-game suspension over getting caught with a fake vaccine card and subsequently accused the media of “creating drama.” Tom Brady, who saved the game said, “We all love him. We care about him deeply. We want to see him be at his best. Unfortunately it won’t be with our team,” while adding he’s going to encourage those around him to help him.
“I think everyone should be very compassionate and empathetic toward some very difficult things that are happening,” Brady said. Le’Veon Bell echoed those same sentiments, adding “I found out when we got into the locker room at the end of the game,” Bell said. “I instantly sent him a text, to try to catch up with him real quick. Obviously he texted me back and I talked to him. He’s still one of my close friends. Like you won’t hear me talking bad about AB at all. Obviously I understand, things happen, but he’s one of my closest friends I’ve been around, a close teammate, overall a good person. Some bad decision-making at times, but he’s human, not perfect, and we’ll continue to move on without him and keep moving forward.
It’s tough. Obviously when I came over here, I was happy to be reunited with him. Unfortunately it was only two games, but at the end of the day, I wish the best for him outside of football or whatever’s next for him.”
It took quite the effort to get Antonio Brown back into the NFL when no one wanted to give him a chance over a series of high profile events. We’re not sure how this is going to pan out but hopefully his friends can get to him.
