ANTONIO BROWN

By: Mike Rifkin

During the third quarter of the Bucs 28-24 victory over the Jets Antonio Brown took off his jersey, pads, and undershirt and ran off the field. There have been reports that coach Bruce Arians asked Brown to go back into the game and Brown said no. Arians said he isn’t talking about Brown and he is no longer a Buccaneer, but my thing is if you have a guy like Brown and you want to talk about the positive, you have to talk about the negative. 

Last October Arians told Peter King of NBC Sports “He screws up one time, he’s gone.” This wasn’t Brown’s first screw up as he was just coming back into the lineup due to an injury and was suspended for three games for having a fake vaccination card. Yes circumstances dictated the need for Brown to play after with Chris Godwin being out for the season with a torn ACL. Antonio Brown was a major force in the Bucs winning the Super Bowl last season he had eight catches for 81 yards and two touchdowns in three games. Brown when he returned from his suspension said “It’s a lot of drama. It’s a lot of drama you guys create, a lot of drama that people create that want stuff from me. But that’s just a part of life, a part of being in the position. I can’t control what people want from me, I can’t control what people write about me, I can’t control what people say about me. All I could do is get up every day and be the best person I can be, and when I get a chance to do my job, do my job the best way I could do it, and that’s what we had today.” The problem with what Brown said is that the media is not the one who creates the drama, it’s  Brown who has put himself in this spot and it’s a narrative he created. 

Brown has now been essentially kicked off of three different teams. The other stuff had been because of off the field problems, but now it has slipped to on the field. Bruce Arians said on Monday “ It was very hard,” “ I wish him well. If he needs help, I hope he gets some. It’s very hard. Because I do care about him.” Antonio Brown doesn’t need to be thinking about playing football or what is next in his career, Brown needs help. If he will not help himself the NFL should step in and offer to get him the help he needs.