Seven times all pro , a touchdown Tom Brady’s pass in last year’s Super Bowl, champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, finalist with the Pittsburgh Steelers, an average of one hundred receptions and thirteen hundred yards per season … If only that was what he would be a candidate for the Hall of Fame. Fame. The downside is that when it comes to balancing, you have to add an explosive temper, mental health problems, accusations of rape, sexual abuse, harassment, robbery and assault, falsification of the vaccination certificate, incidents of all kinds with the justice system, with NFL coaches and executives, with some teammates. Antonio Brown is a bomb that explodes from time to time, with increasing frequency.
Brown was aiming for a second ring in February at Brady’s wheel, but his temper (or whatever) got the better of him. In the middle of the third quarter of Tampa’s game in New York against the Jets, he got angry, made a scare, took off his clothes on the way to the locker room tunnel and throwing them left and right, until he was naked from half length up. His partner Mike Evans tried unsuccessfully to see reason. Bruce Arians, the coach, made the typical gesture of putting his finger to his throat, as if slitting his throat. An hour and a half later, at the press conference, he announced that he was no longer a Bucs player. He had been tried and convicted, and the sentence carried out.
He has been accused of robbery, assault and rape, and has threatened women, journalists and managers
What enraged Antonio to the point of exploding like that? His explanation is that he was being forced to play with an ankle injury. There may be some truth in that theory – although according to Arians he had not raised the matter at any time – but it seems more feasible that he was pissed off by not receiving enough passes in his opinion. “I’m not playing,” you can see how he protests at one point in the game (which Tampa won in the last minute with a touchdown from Brady, and Brown on the way to the airport in a cab).
Chosen in the sixth round of the draft, he became a star with the Steelers, for whom he played nine seasons and came as rookie to the Super Bowl, to get mad at him quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and being traded to the Raiders. In Oakland he played only one game, after his fingers were frozen undergoing cryotherapy (cold treatment), he refused to put on a new type of safer helmet imposed by the NFL and face a team executive. His next stop was New England, from where he fled after a fortnight after threats were published against a woman who accused him of sexual harassment in which he made reference to his children. But when Brady packed his bags to Tampa, he asked again (his wishes are demands) that his friend be given a new chance, and he contributed to both victory in last year’s Super Bowl and this season, despite of having missed three games as punishment for falsifying the vaccination certificate against covid. He had a contract in force of three million euros.
Bad student
The beginning of a complicated story
Antonio Brown was born and raised in Miami, and played for the Norland High School Vikings as a quarterback, running back, wide receiver and punt returner, a clear demonstration of his talents. A bad student, the prestigious Florida State University denied him enrollment due to his poor academic record, having to settle for studying (and especially playing soccer) at the much more modest North Carolina Tech Prep, where he stayed for only one year. He eventually got accepted to Central Michigan, where he caught the attention of the Steelers, who selected him in the sixth round of the 2010 draft.
As good on the field as he is prone to violence off the field, he has on his record a two-year suspended sentence for assaulting a moving truck driver, has been accused of non-payment by his employees, and has solved the cases of alleged rape, sexual abuse and harassment out of court, paying significant amounts to their victims. The NFL has been very condescending to him over time, but an unforgiving sin is insubordination. Will someone give you a new chance? At 33, his redemption seems increasingly difficult.
