There will be only 25,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium for the Super Bowl, so if you listen carefully, you can hear Antonio Brown himself applauding. Antonio would like you to know he’s been through a lot, okay? He has faced criticism in the media (for multiple reports of sexual assault, including rape and sexual misconduct, and his attempts to intimidate anyone who came forward). That was tough on Antonio!
And then there were the haters (who pointed out that, along with the charges, he was charged with throwing furniture off a 14th-floor balcony and nearly beating a 22-month-old and grandfather walking down the street – he reached a secret settlement with the family). So hateful! And of course there were the teams that gave him up, like the Steelers (who traded him after he tried to set the organization on fire) and the Raiders (who cut him after he tried Which organization on fire) and the patriots (who tried to contract him cheaply and then cut him off for harassing a woman who came forward.) How rude of them!
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The Steelers, Raiders and Patriots are not playing in this Super Bowl, but Brown is for the Buccaneers. And for that Antonio Brown is “grateful”.
He said that word grateful, many Wednesday during his Super Bowl Zoom availability: “I’m just so grateful to be here with my teammates, getting ready … very grateful … it’s a blessing to be here … super grateful. ” This would be a great attitude from someone who survived cancer or had to play in the Canadian Football League for five years before finally getting his NFL chance. It felt different from Brown.
Brown has the right to defend himself. But he seems to think he is a victim, and he is not. His list of violations is long. If Brown has learned anything over the years, he’s hiding it from the rest of us. If he realizes his own shortcomings, he still won’t admit them.
“I would be doing a disservice to talk about things that are not central to this game,” he said on Wednesday.
There’s a time and a place for those kinds of answers – like a few years ago, when rival corners Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman both made it to the Super Bowl, and Revis made it clear he didn’t want a word fight between the two all week. But Brown’s words were both horrifying and laughable, coming from a man who once livestreamed a speech from Steelers’ post-playoff game in the locker room. He basically boycotted Raiders training camp for wanting to use an outdated helmet and got into confrontations with a Raiders coach and general manager. And those things are far less disturbing than the stories of serious personal misconduct.
There is literally no one on either team who would think that Brown was doing “a disservice” by saying he regretted his past behavior or that his problems were caused by himself.
Brown said he has been working on controlling his emotions. And he said a year ago, “I think I owe an apology to the entire NFL [for my past behavior]. I could have done many things better. He then said he was “the problem kid, the guy getting in trouble”, and that bothered him.
He could have said that again on Wednesday. He could have even set out those vague, narrow apologies that seem to concern only his actions in the locker room. Instead, he let go of the persistent suspicion that he’d said all that a year ago just because he was looking for a job – and now he has one, so never mind.
“I’ve been through some things, but that’s life,” said Brown on Wednesday. ‘We all have a story. We must all allow ourselves to grow in order to improve ourselves. I am just grateful for the journey. “
Brown was not banned from the NFL or permanently blacklisted, as it once appeared to be. He was not signed by anyone after he was released by the Patriots in September 2019, as an NFL investigation was underway; He filed an eight-game suspension to begin 2020 in connection with a plea for burglary and battery charges following a January incident and the harassment of a woman who came forward with a sexual misconduct claim. But that had nothing to do with the sexual assault bills, for which he is still pending civil suit (a trial is currently scheduled for December). He found a franchise willing to take a relatively small risk on a Hall of Fame talent, thanks in part to a star quarterback (Tom Brady) who had befriended him and wanted him on the team.
But by refusing to admit that he had done anything wrong, let alone show any remorse, Brown looked and sounded like a man who thinks he has been persecuted. Maybe that was just the facade he put up on Wednesday. But if he feels that way, there will be more ugly chapters. If he thinks he doesn’t need to change, he’ll do more damage.
He has framed everything in football terms. He said he has learned “this game can be taken away any minute,” as if that’s the big lesson here. We can only imagine Roger Goodell’s reaction to this quote from Brown, after he was asked about Goodell and said he hasn’t spoken to the Commissioner lately: “I think [the league] helped me a lot to get to this point. I was super grateful to have the opportunity to restart my career. “
If Brown thinks Goodell’s goal was to help Brown reboot his career, that would be news to Goodell.
“I want my legacy to be a man who was persistent, a man who never gave up no matter the odds, no matter the hate,” said Brown. “A sixth-round kid from Central Michigan who never gave up. A man who had the will of a champion. “
He was indeed a sixth-round pick from Central Michigan, and it is true that he never gave up, and he could soon become a champion. But life after football is coming sooner than Brown thinks. On Wednesday he dodges questions. That doesn’t mean they are leaving.