Antonio Brown Sideline Controversy
Antonio Brown Sideline Controversy
Written by Joshua Higgins
January 28, 2022
Everybody knows what the NFL is, and if you're a fan of football then you probably know who Antonio Brown is. He’s one of the most celebrated football wide receivers in the league and he just got kicked off of his team because of the stunt he pulled in his game versus the New York Jets on January 2nd, 2022.
Antonio Brown was originally drafted to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010, he played 9 seasons there. During his time there, he’s had multiple arguments with head coach Mike Tomlin which eventually led to his release. He then went to the Oakland Raiders (Now the Las Vegas Raiders), and got cut because of a contract dispute. Then, he got picked up by the New England Patriots, and also got cut within about a week because of sexual misconduct charges which were never resolved. So as you can see, he already has a record of controversy, has been known to be hard to work with, and he’s acted out of line before. At times, he’d yell back at coaches, get into fights on the field, and just seemed a bit more aggressive than normal. Most people speculate that he has mental issues and some of his teammates say he might be suffering from CTE, which is basically caused through head trauma; it makes you have mood swings and attitude issues.
In 2020, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked up Antonio Brown and gave him a new home with one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, Tom Brady, and celebrated tight end Rob Gronkowski. This team ended up winning the Super Bowl on February 2nd 2021 over the Kansas City Chiefs in a neck to neck, nailbiter.
Brown came back for the 2021-2022 season looking promising as ever. The Bucs were looking ever more dangerous than last year with some new additions to the already stacked squad. With the team being 11-4 in week 16 of the regular season and playing the New York Jets, all signs were pointing towards the team blowing them out.
In the 3rd quarter of the game, head coach Bruce Arians told Brown to go in the game, but Brown told him that he injured his ankle. Earlier that week he had an MRI that showed broken ligaments and bone fragments in his ankle, which are extremely painful to play with. Brown, knowing that he couldn’t play through the pain, refused and told him that he couldn’t. Arians then told him to “Get Out” and Brown did exactly that, taking off his helmet, shoulder pads, and shirt and jogging off the field hyping up the crowd.
The Bucs ended up winning on a last-second touchdown drive and clinching a playoff berth off the win. In the post-game interview, Airans, when asked about Brown, said he was off the team. Tom Brady was asked the same question and said that he cares deeply about him and he’s praying for him and we all should too.
Brown said nothing about the matter for a little while, but then he took to Twitter and tweeted “Super Gremlin” which was a nod to famous rapper Kodack Black’s new song, called exactly that, which is the only thing he’s spoken out about the matter for a little while. Basically, he’s saying he’s a menace. Brown did in fact eventually come to say that he did have an extremely painful ankle injury and shouldn’t have even suited up that day.
The Bucs are still looking hot during the playoff rush and are looking to be one of the top contenders for this year's Super Bowl, but they also lost star wide receiver Chris Godwin to a torn ACL, which is a huge hit to the team’s receiver game, losing both Brown and Godwin who are 2 of the best in the league.
This is one of the craziest outbursts that have ever happened in NFL history, and it’s crazy that we got to experience it. Even though Brown is one of the greatest receivers of his time, he will probably never play in the NFL or even play football ever again.