Antonio Brown may have said goodbye to the NFL, leaving the Tampa bay Buccaneers’ Week 17 game in the middle of the third quarter as they trailed the New York Jets by double digits. Brown decided not to exit in a subtle way, he proceeded to take off his pads on the sideline, throw some things in the stands, and walk to the locker room while his team was on offense.
We have since found out way more damning information that does not paint Bruce Arians and the coaching staff in the best light. NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport shared a bit more detail Monday morning about the sideline spat between Brown and Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians in the third quarter of Sunday’s game against the New York Jets that led to Brown’s dismissal from the team.
“Midway through the game yesterday, Bruce Arians and the offensive staff told Antonio Brown to go into the game. They believed that he was healthy,” Rapoport said on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.” “Antonio Brown did not believe he was healthy. He had been battling an ankle injury for the last several weeks.”
” … “What he told the staff, from what I understand, is that he was not going into the game because, in his mind, he did not feel he was healthy.
“The response then from the offensive coaches and from Bruce Arians was, ‘If you are not gonna go into the game when we tell you to go into the game, then you cannot be here.’ At that point, they threw him off the sidelines and then cut him from the team.”
Social media heard this report and blasted Arians and the coaching staff for not caring about player health.
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Arians spent two seasons with Brown as his offensive coordinator on the Pittsburgh Steelers and welcomed the troubled wide receiver to Tampa Bay in October 2020 only because Tom Brady really wanted him on the team. Brown was serving an eight-game suspension for repeated violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy at that time.
He was great on the field last year and did not disrupt up anything as the team won the Super Bowl.
He is now done with the Bucs and likely the NFL as a whole.
“I hope he can get fixed,” Arians said.
