Antonio Brown has his own version of the topless meltdown that occurred Sunday afternoon and he’s accusing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of forcing him to play with an injury.
When Brown stripped off his uniform and paraded into the locker room midgame against the New York Jets, the blame seemingly fell squarely on his shoulders. But the polarizing wide receiver released a statement to put the Bucs and their head coach Bruce Arians at fault.
“Because of my commitment to the game, I relented to pressure directly from my coach [Bruce Arians] to play injured,” Brown said in a statement released by his attorney Sean Burstyn. “Despite the pain, I suited up, the staff injected me with what I know was a powerful and sometimes dangerous painkiller that the NFLPA has warned against using, and I gave it all for my team.”
Brown missed more than two months during the season, a combination of an ankle injury and a suspension handed down by the league after the 33-year-old NFL star was caught using a fake vaccine card. He
“I took a seat on the sideline and my coach came up to me, very upset, and shouted, ‘What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you?’ I told him, ‘It’s my ankle,'” Brown said.
“He then ordered me to get on the field. I said, ‘Coach, I can’t.’ He didn’t call for medical attention. Instead, he shouted at me, ‘YOU’RE DONE!’ while he ran his finger across his throat. Coach was telling me that if I didn’t play hurt, then I was done with the Bucs.”
Following the game, Arians noted Brown was no longer a member of the team. Tampa’s head coach claimed he attempted to get Brown into the game and after the wide receiver refused twice, Arians reportedly told him to get out. Arians also expressed sympathy for Brown, stating, “I do care about him.”
“First they cut me. Now they cage me,” Brown said. “Instead of asking how I felt or getting to the bottom of it, the team texted my camp promoting a totally false narrative that I randomly acted out without any explanation. They even told us in writing ‘don’t spin
“I have stress, I have things I need to work on. But the worst part of this has been the Bucs’ repeated effort to portray this as a random outburst. They are telling people that first I walked off, then I was cut. No. No. No. I was cut first and then I went home. They threw me out like an animal and I refused to wear their brand on my body, so I took my jersey off.”
According to Brown, an MRI revealed broken fragments in his ankle that will require surgery to heal. Thursday morning Brown also released screenshots of a text exchange he had with Arians.
Throughout his NFL career, Brown has a history of self-inflicted incidents that were detrimental to teams, causing them to either release or trade the talented football star. His tenures in Pittsburgh, Oakland, New England and now Tampa all ended unceremoniously.
Although he won’t play for Tampa again this season, Brown has not been officially cut because the Bucs do not want to risk him signing with another team for the playoffs. Brown said he plans to play next season after he fully recovers from ankle surgery.