Antonio Brown - 2019's Sports Pariah

By: Wayne

As my sports fandom begins to span over a longer period of time, looking back and seeing the several factors which morphed a player's public perception is incredibly interesting. I watched Steph Curry go from the oft-injured, sweet-shooting point guard from Davidson into a transcendent and era-defining first-ballot Hall of Famer. I watched Peyton Manning go from 4 potentially career-ending neck surgeries to leading the league in touchdown passes on what I believe is the best offense I have ever seen. I have watched players' careers decline due to injuries and have seen father time claim the playing lives of many.

And now, I have watched Antonio Brown go from the soft-spoken, chip-on-his-shoulder, 6th-round draft pick to a social pariah whose legacy will ultimately be defined by his recent transgressions. How did we get here? How did one of the most dominant offensive players of the last decade turn into an infamous, villainous character who nobody wants on their team? That's what I'm going to dive into in this article as I hope to better understand the downfall of one of the best athletes of my generation.

To understand the events of the past year for Antonio Brown, let's start at the beginning. He was born in Miami, Florida in the summer of 1988 to Adrianne and Eddie Brown. Eddie, in pursuit of a football career, divorced Adrianne and left Antonio and his brother Desmond behind when AB was just 10 years old. Eddie was just 18 when Antonio was born, and the young parents were in over their heads with the two boys. After leaving the family behind, Eddie went on to be named the best player in Arena Football League history in 2006. Adrianne was left to raise the two boys by herself, and she did just that for the early part of Antonio and Desmond's lives. Eventually, Adrianne remarried a man named Larry Moss, and unfortunately for AB, Larry and the youngster did not get along. Antonio was asked to leave the house when he was 16, and he went on to live with teammates and friends while he played high school football at Miami Norland.

Antonio's athletic excellence was on full display from a young age. At Miami Norland High School, he played running back, quarterback, wide receiver, and punt returner for the football team. He also ran track and field, becoming a state qualifier in the 100m dash and helping his school win a title in the 4x 100-meter relay. But academically, Antonio struggled. His tumultuous home life was certainly no help, and his academic issues made him ineligible for Florida State where he applied to play football. He considered attending Alcorn State, a historically black university, but ultimately enrolled at North Carolina Tech Prep Christian Academy, a school that sells itself on second chances for athletes. AB played 5 games at quarterback for the school and initially received a scholarship at Florida International University to play football.

Brown's dream of playing college football was finally being realized, but FIU expelled him before the season began after he had an altercation with security staff. Trouble seemed to follow the young football player wherever he went, and his propensity to find himself in shitty situations kept getting in the way of his undeniable football talent. Thankfully, an old coach in Butch Jones stuck his neck out for his former player and invited him for tryouts at West Virginia where he was the wide receivers coach. Despite hardly having played as a wide receiver, Brown crushed the workout, once again displaying his great talent and passion for football.

Butch Jones was soon hired as the new head coach at Central Michigan, and he took the talented Miami kid with him to play wide receiver. Brown arrived in Mount Pleasant, Michigan and transitioned to the wide receiver position seamlessly with 102 receptions for 1,003 yards and 6 touchdowns in his freshman season, leading the MAC in catches and being named the conference's freshman of the year. He had some difficulty adjusting to life on a college campus, as he was frequently late for meetings and practice, but wide receivers coach Zach Azzani took him in and helped him with the transition as he became a part of his family.

Antonio went on to become a two-time first-team All-American and two-time first-team All-MAC before declaring for the 2010 NFL Draft. In 41 games at Central Michigan, Brown produced 305 catches for 3,199 yards and 22 touchdowns. Brown's off-field issues and lack of proven production against top-end opponents saw him fall to the 6th round, where the Steelers drafted him as the 22nd receiver off the board. Antonio chose the jersey number 84, which he explained: "8 times 4 is 32, 32 teams looked past me, even the Steelers. So every time I go out there it's a little added motivation." Brown had the ultimate chip on his shoulder.

Antonio Brown was listed as the 5th wide receiver on the Steelers' depth chart heading into the season. It wasn't clear right away he would produce for his new team, but in his professional debut against the Tennessee Titans, he ran 89 yards for a touchdown on a kickoff return on the very first play of the game. His athleticism and love for the game were clear, and the Steelers soon realized they had unearthed a gem in the draft. In his second season, at the age of 23, Brown received for 1,108 yards despite starting just 3 games and would go on to produce 5 straight seasons with over 100 catches and 1,284 yards. In 2014, his 5th professional season, he earned his first first-team All-Pro nod as he led the league in receptions with 129, in yards with 1,698, and scored 13 touchdowns.

Brown earned an All-Pro nod every season from 2013 to 2017 and became the most technically proficient player at his position in the league, and maybe of all time. Randy Moss once said of him, "there's nothing he can't do in an offense", and Cris Carter called his overall releases and route running "phenomenal". He might be the best route runner in NFL history, and at just 5'11", his nose for the end zone is incredibly impressive. In 2018, the Ringer published an article titled "Antonio Brown is Approaching the NFL's Receiver Pantheon" and it seemed entirely possible he could become the best receiver of all time by the time he retired.

It's crazy how much shit can change in a year. After producing yet another outstanding season in 2018, catching 104 passes for 1,297 yards and a league-leading 15 receiving touchdowns, things started to feel a bit different. Pittsburgh Steelers beat reporters were starting to uncover troubling news about a volatile locker room. Brown was held out of Week 17 for what head coach Mike Tomlin called a "balky knee". However, after the game Pittsburgh Post Gazette writers Gerry Dulac and Ed Bouchette reported that Brown had actually been held out of the game for disciplinary reasons. According to the reporters, he had missed several team activities that week and had an argument with an unnamed teammate who was later discovered to be quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Unfortunately for Steelers fans, Brown's quasi-suspension was just the beginning. Brown arrived in the team's locker room expecting to play in their Week 17 matchup against the spiraling Bengals, but Tomlin had other ideas. The dispute between the player and coach was later described by anonymous teammates as "embarrassing" and "the worst [they] had ever seen". Months later, in February of this year, Antonio Brown responded to the dispute between him and Big Ben with a tweet:

No conflict just a matter of respect! Mutual respect! He has a owner mentality like he can call out anybody including coaches. Players know but they can’t say anything about it otherwise they meal ticket gone. It’s a dirty game within a game. #truth"

The embattled Steelers receiver later said on Roethlisberger on HBO's The Shop “All year dude called me out. We’d lose a game and he’d be like, ‘AB should have ran a better route’,” Brown said. “That’s the type of guy he is. He feels like he’s the owner. Bro, you threw that shit to the D-line, how the fuck am I running a bad route? You need to give me a better ball.”

Brown also disputed with fellow Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster after he was named the Steelers 2018 MVP. He took to Twitter saying "Emotion: boy fumbled the whole postseason in the biggest game of the year!" A quick refresher - the game Brown was referring to was the Week 16 matchup against the Saints in which the Steelers were on the move down 31-28 late when JuJu fumbled the ball on the Saints 41-yard line with 40 seconds remaining. This would not be the last time the two would engage words on Twitter. JuJu seemed disheartened by how much of a dick AB was on social media, responding by saying he had never shown the veteran player anything but love and had looked up to him from the time he entered the league. He eventually tweeted a quote by Mark Twain to describe his relationship with Brown: "Never argue with a fool. Onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

The Steelers were also dealing with LeVeon Bell's one-year holdout and subsequent disputes with management around this time, so it felt like the sky was falling on this proud franchise. According to Ian Rappoport, Brown never made a formal trade request, but he had made his feelings on his future with the team known several times. He first tweeted on September 17, 2018 "trade me, let's find out" in response to a Steelers reporter's claims that he would not be able to produce the same numbers with another franchise. Brown's disputes with Tomlin, Roethlisberger, and Smith-Schuster were all Jenga pieces that were being pulled out and after he was held out of the Week 17 matchup against the Bengals it felt like the whole tower just came crashing down. 

A couple of months after the season had ended, on February 19, 2019, Antonio Brown tweeted that he had met with Steelers president Art Rooney and cleared the air on several issues. He said they "both agreed it is time to move on". 18 days later, on March 9, Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders in exchange for a third-round and fifth-round selection. The star receiver was nearly traded to the Buffalo Bills before this but took to social media (as he loves to do) to talk shit on the Bills franchise and say he didn't want to play there. Good for you, Antonio.

The beginning of Brown's Raiders tenure was pretty smooth. He agreed to a three-year, $50.1 million contract with his new team. In his introductory press conference with his new team, he said the following, "I'm here to elevate everything around me. I'm here to just be a surge of energy, of positivity, and good force. A great teammate and to bring out the best of everyone around me cause we all know it's not just about me." Uh-huh. Sure, Antonio. We all totally believed you.

The first sign of trouble came as Antonio Brown showed up to training camp with the most disgusting pair of feet I've ever seen. Brown had been on vacation in Paris and tried cryotherapy - a special kind of athletic healing therapy where you expose yourself to extremely cold temperatures. Plenty of athletes have done this recently - LeBron James and Steph Curry most notably - and it has become a pretty hot trend for athletes. Of course, you are supposed to wear all kinds of protective gear before doing this, and of course, Antonio Brown did not. And so, his feet were left with what was described as "extreme frostbite". It's a good thing Hard Knocks runs on HBO because the scene where he revealed his feet should have been rated TV-MA for gore. Brown described his feet as "pretty much getting circumcised". No fucking kidding.

So what was supposed to be a smooth transition to a new team for Brown saw its first hiccup as he missed 10 of 11 training camp dates with the Raiders. No biggie - star vets miss training camp appearances all the time, right? But then, when he returned to practice with his new team, Brown was met with a new obstacle to overcome. His Schutt Air Advantage helmet which he had worn for his entire career had been banned by the NFL as the league looked to transition to the safest helmets possible to avoid head trauma for players.

Makes sense, right? A league that has seen scrutiny for player safety issues making changes to protect its players more? But Brown was livid. He stormed out of practice after being informed by Raiders staffers that he would not be able to practice in his helmet. A Raiders teammate anonymously told NFL reporter Michael Silver that his refusal to wear the new helmet was "honestly the most insane thing I have ever heard. I don’t know why it’s so important to him. It doesn’t make any sense." The helmet saga went on for the next several weeks, as Brown refused to cave and change to what the NFL felt was a safer alternative to the helmet he had worn his entire career.

Brown filed a grievance to the NFL on August 9, threatening to retire from football if he was forced to wear a new helmet. So much for not making shit about him. The grievance was denied by an arbitrator, and Brown was forced to find a replacement for his helmet. He did, but the new helmet he picked was also not allowed under the new NFL rules. Go fucking figure. So Brown did the only thing he knew how and filed another grievance on August 19, which was also denied. On September 4, 5 days before the Raiders' first regular-season game, Brown finally settled on the Xenith Shadow helmet for the 2019 season. Good for you, Antonio.

But the damage had been done, and Brown's new team had grown tired of his antics. The same day he decided on a new helmet, Raiders general manager Mike Mayock fined him $54,000 for his unexcused absences throughout the summer and for missing two recent team practices. It was a pretty logical move for a franchise looking to avoid constant media scrutiny and keep its star player on the field. Of course, this didn't sit well with the primadonna receiver. Brown posted a picture on Instagram of the letter he received detailing his fines with the caption, "when your own team wants to hate but there's no stopping me now; devil is a lie, everyone got to pay this year so we clear". Don't fault me for the lack of literacy in these tweets, I told you AB wasn't exactly an academic scholar. He also tagged the Raiders' official Instagram account in the post, making sure it was seen by everyone he wanted to see it.

The next day, Brown confronted Mayock behind closed doors for the fines he received, calling the general manager a "cracker" - which he later denied (because of course he fucking did). Brown threatened to hit Mayock and had to be held back by several teammates including standup gentleman Vontaze Burfict. That was sarcastic if it wasn't clear. Burfict is one of the NFL's premier assholes who had one of the most memorable hits of all time in which he absolutely cleaned Brown in a playoff game back when he played for the Bengals. Before Brown left, for good measure, he punted a football at Mayock and yelled at the GM "fine me for that!" 

On September 6, Brown made an emotional apology to his teammates and publicly read a statement saying, "I'm excited to be out here today. I apologized to my teammates and the organization. Enough talk, man. I'm excited to be out here with my teammates. I'm grateful for all the fans. I'm excited to be a part of the Raiders and see you guys soon." Jon Gruden confirmed that the plan was for Brown to play in Week 1 against the Broncos. But it was never meant to be.

On September 7, the Raiders made the decision to void the guaranteed money in Brown's contract. Needless to say, he was pissed and demanded his release from the franchise. Before granting his wish, the team fined him $215,000 for his altercation with Mayock. So much for being a surge of positivity and a great teammate. Suddenly, arguably the best receiver in the NFL over the past several seasons was a free agent and could choose wherever he wanted to play. That is if any teams still wanted him.

The Patriots, in constant pursuit of another Super Bowl ring and desperately needing some receiving talent, jumped at the opportunity to bring Brown in. AB was signed to a 1-year, $15 million deal with $9 million guaranteed. Why they would guarantee him $9 million is beyond me, but suddenly the Pats had the best receiving room in the NFL with him, Julian Edelman, and Josh Gordon. That didn't last long. After making his debut against the Miami Dolphins with 4 catches for 56 yards and a touchdown, things somehow got worse for the troubled wide receiver. 

How could things possibly get worse for Antonio? Great question. His former trainer Brittany Taylor accusing him of sexual harassment, intimidation, and rape should do the trick. Ensuing articles have accused him of showing his dick to an artist, farting in a doctor's face, letting a fish tank full of piranhas (which are illegal to own in several states) die in his house, and throwing furniture out of his 14th-story apartment which nearly hit a 22-month-old child below. You seriously cannot make this shit up. Brown's text messages with Taylor attempting to intimidate her into dropping the sexual assault case became public, and his time in New England was suddenly over. Robert Kraft was pissed that Brown was hurting his franchise's image, and the Pats quickly cut him from the team, not wanting to deal with his bullshit. 

Recently, the New Orleans Saints showed some interest in signing the troubled wide receiver. Beyond their all-pro wideout Michael Thomas (who is on pace to break the record for catch percentage for the second time), they have minimal receiving weapons. So the match made sense. The Saints would be taking a risk, with Brown potentially seeing punishment from the NFL after being signed, but they needed the help heading into the playoffs. The Saints asked him not to bring an entourage to his workout, and of course, he didn't listen. According to Jay Glazer, he brought several people with him to document the session. The Saints smartly said "fuck this" and moved on from the idea of signing Brown. It's unclear if any other teams will show interest in signing him in the future. His Twitter showcases his lack of literacy as he has thrown shade at the NFL, Derek Carr, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and the Saints franchise all in just the last couple of days. Brown just continues to be his own worst enemy. 

So where does Brown head next? It's pretty indisputable that he is a pretty shitty human being at this point, and I surely wouldn't want him on my team. Looking at the progression of his life and career, I think it's clear his upbringing made a significant impact on his future career. I've always felt that the environment you grow up in has a huge impact on the remainder of your life, and Brown has been troubled from the minute he was born. AB is mega-talented, and this time last year the star receiver was looking like becoming one of the best to ever play the position. His fall from grace is unparalleled in my memory, and the details surrounding his transgressions are shocking. Dating back to his altercation with security members at FIU, Brown has constantly found ways to get into shitty situations and keep himself off the football field. Antonio Brown was a dominant force on my fantasy football team a few seasons ago, and I long for the days where we were watching him backflip into the end zone with frequency. The rapid decline in his career should be a cautionary tale to all star receivers - don't be a fuckhead at every turn and you might just get to keep earning money for playing the sport you love.