Antonio Brown sure knows how to burn down a bridge, throw extra dynamite on it and make sure it could never be rebuilt ever again.
That was the case after he was brought in to workout for the New Orleans Saints just before the 2019 season ended. The Saints elected not to sign him and it caused Brown to lash out by accusing them of bring him in as a “publicity stunt.”
“I know I got a really crusty tone lately, but really I’m at peace,” Brown said. “I just don’t like the lack of respect in the world, you know? You know, everyone has deadlines. I guess the NFL don’t have a deadline for me. I appreciate Sean Payton and them guys for supporting me and bringing me out to work out, but I think it was a publicity stunt for them. Sean Payton know[s] the feeling of being left behind, not being able to interact with his team.”
Well, Brown wasn’t finished going at the Saints after he appeared on a Complex podcast show and he stated once again that it was a publicity stunt and brought up the organization’s new scandal where the team is being accused of sending hundreds of emails that show them actually shaping a list of credibly accused clergy on the area’s Roman Catholic sexual abuse crisis.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys alleged in court papers that Saints executives joined in the archdiocese’s “pattern and practice of concealing its crimes,” and one email from late 2018 referred to Saints Senior Vice President of Communications Greg Bensel joining unnamed “third parties” in a discussion about “removing priests from the pedophile list.”
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“This goes beyond public relations,” the attorneys wrote, accusing the Saints of issuing misleading statements saying their work for the archdiocese involved only “messaging” and handling media inquiries as part of the 2018 release of the clergy names.
Instead, they wrote, “The Saints appear to have had a hand in determining which names should or should not have been included on the pedophile list.”
“In order to fulfill this role … the Saints must have known the specific allegations of sexual abuse against a priest … and made a judgment call about whether those allegations by a particular victim against a named priest were, in its opinion, legitimate enough to warrant being included,” the attorneys wrote. They added, “It cannot now be disputed that the Saints had actual involvement in the creation of the pedophile list.”
You can pretty much count Brown out from ever playing for the Saints.
