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Antonio Brown lasted just over a year in Tampa Bay before predictably melting down, storming out of MetLife Stadium and off the Buccaneers’ roster after refusing to go into the game. The Buccaneers, who have already clinched the AFC South, are now down two of their top-three receivers after Chris Godwin tore his ACL.
It’s a tough situation for the Bucs, who will attempt to defend their Super Bowl title this month as a weakened operation. But it’s a tough situation of their own doing – specifically, of Tom Brady’s doing.
The main reason Brown signed with the Bucs halfway through the 2020 season was due to Brady’s endorsement. In March of that year, head coach Bruce Arians was quoted as saying that Brown was “not a fit” in Tampa.
“I just know him, and it’s not a fit in our locker room,” Arians, who was the Steelers offensive coordinator with Brown from 2007-’11, said at the time. “He’s too much of a diva.”
What changed? Brady – the then-six-time Super Bowl champion who has a say in everything – felt Brown deserved another chance. He invited the troubled wide receiver to live with him and his family in Florida, hoping Brown would remain on the straight and narrow under his wing.
At the time, Brown had been unemployed for over a year, last playing for Brady’s Patriots for just one game in 2019. He was released after his former trainer, Britney Taylor, accused him of rape, and had to serve a suspension from the league before suiting up for Tampa. A Sports Illustrated article around the same time detailed another allegation of sexual misconduct.
Brown’s incidents, both on and off the field, stretched well beyond that. He was inactive for the Steelers’ Week 17 game in 2018 after allegedly throwing a ball at a teammate in practice and being upset that JuJu Smith-Schuster was named team MVP. Pittsburgh traded him to the Raiders that offseason, but he feuded with the team over his helmet and was released. In 2020, he was accused of assaulting a moving truck driver and had a number of run-ins with police.
Brady decided to look past the laundry list of red flags for the sole reason that he is a great football player, and could help the Bucs win. For a while, it seemed to be working – Brown caught a touchdown in the Super Bowl, and Arians called him a “model citizen.”
But the other shoe always drops with Brown. It started earlier this season when Brown was suspended by the league yet again for obtaining a fake COVID-19 vaccination card. It ended on Sunday, when he quit on his team in the most dramatic way possible – tossing his clothes into the stands and walking off the field in the middle of a game.
After the game ended with another dramatic comeback led by Brady, the quarterback was sympathetic, and didn’t call out the fact that the guy he stuck his neck out for up and quit on him.
“I think everyone should be compassionate and empathetic toward some very difficult things that are happening,” he said about Brown.
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