Antonio Brown‘s contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has been terminated after the wide receiver caused a scene in the middle of a game. Now, he’s questioning if he’s still friendships with notable quarterback Tom Brady since the 44-year-old did not defend him.
During the game against the New York Jets, Brown was seen stripping his gear and undershirt on the field before storming into the locker room mid-game.
After this event, Bruce Arians announced that the player’s work with Tampa Bay would be coming to a close. However, the 33-year-old NFL player has argued that this was an unfair termination because he was suffering from an ankle injury and Arians allegedly forced him to play on a sprained ankle.
“Coach was telling me that if I didn’t play hurt, then I was done with the Bucs,” the former Tampa Bay player wrote in a letter that explained his side of the story. During an episode of the Full Send podcast, he also recalled Arians telling him to “‘Get the f— out of here,” when he said his ankle was bothering him.
“Imagine if a coach tell you, ‘Get the f— out of here.’ What are you gonna do [when] you tell a coach you can’t go in the game?” Brown questioned during the podcast.
Since the news of his release was broken to the public, he has been outspoken about the animosity he feels from those involved in NFL circles.
Antonio Brown discusses the business part of NFL friendships
“I mean, you can’t really expect anyone to be your friend in the business of football. The game is football but our business is winning,” he stated on Friday. Brown additionally noted, “How I’ve been handled, how I continue to be handled, how I continue to be slandered, how I continue to be made upon as a bad guy — I know America loves its bad guys — but I’m a great guy.”
When quarterback Tom Brady was asked about the incident, he only relayed positive commentary. “We all love him. We care about him deeply,” Brady said in reference to Brown. “We want to see him being at his best, and unfortunately, it won’t be with our team.”
However, the former player finds the situation a tad more complicated and has expressed that he doesn’t know where his friendship with Tom Brady stands, considering the quarterback didn’t defend him when his contract was at risk. “To say someone’s my friend — I’m out here getting ‘prove it’ type contracts where I’m out here, they got me trying to earn a million dollars to make some type of catches,” he relayed.
Brown went on to explain, “So to say you’re my friend — I shouldn’t be playing on those types of deals when I just came with you and won the Super Bowl.”
