Antonio Brown was finally granted his formal release by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Even that was not good enough to stop the talk surrounding the controvesial WR.
Brown, in the middle of the Bucs’ game against the Jets, removed his jersey, pads and shirt and proceeded to do jumping jacks in the end zone en route to the locker room. Since then, he has accused Arians and the Buccaneers organization of mishandling an ankle injury.
“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 via 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.”
He said the pain became too “extreme” for him to return to the field, but that he was ordered to go back in by Arians anyway.
“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 in the statement. “But he knew that. It was well documented and we had discussed it.”
Footage has since emerged showing Brown favoring his injured ankle before the Bucs took on the Jets.
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Even former head team doctor David Chao agres that Brown was favoring his left ankle in the video.
Brown subsequently leaked alleged texts between Arians and himself, where it shows Arians telling him the team was not resting up for the playoffs, and Brown said that he couldn’t get up to full speed.
In a press conference on Thursday, Arians disputed the claims, saying Brown did not go through the proper channels and appeared healthy enough to play.
“At no point in time during that game did he ever ask the trainer or doctor about his ankle,” Arians said. “That’s the normal protocol. You go through protocols during games. I was never notified of it.”
He also confirmed that he told Brown to ‘get the f outta here’ after he complained about not getting the ball and refusing to go in.
