A crazy saga ends as Raiders officially cut Antonio Brown
Antonio Brown never played a game for the Oakland Raiders, yet his time there will be remembered for a long time.
On Saturday morning, after a crazy offseason, the Raiders released Brown six months after a high-profile trade to acquire him.
It’s safe to say that Brown’s time with the Raiders will go down as one of the zaniest stories in sports history.
Brown had an argument with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at a Wednesday practice, skipped meetings and practices, then showed up Sunday ready to play in a must-win game. The Steelers deactivated him, and that basically set in motion the end of his Pittsburgh career.
Brown, after basically nixing a trade to Buffalo by threatening to not report to the Bills, was sent to the Raiders for a third- and fifth-round pick. He got a raise. Everyone seemed happy.
It wouldn’t take long to unravel. There were early warning signs, like continued public feuds with former Steelers teammates Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Then at the start of training camp, everything went off the rails.
To sum up the madness, Brown (long breath) burned his feet in a cryotherapy mishap, fought the NFL over use of an outdated helmet, left the team while he threatened to sit out over the helmet issue, lost a grievance with the NFL over the helmet, was told his preferred replacement helmet wasn’t safe, complained about the NFL again, finally settled on a new helmet and reported, skipped enough meetings and practices to get fined more than $50,000, posted the fine letter to social media, got in a heated argument with GM Mike Mayock during practice, apologized after the Raiders threatened suspension, was told he could play Week 1, posted a video of a phone call with Jon Gruden to YouTube, was fined for the Mayock incident, was told his guaranteed money was voided, vowed to not play for the Raiders again, asked for his release, and was released on Saturday morning.
On Saturday morning, after a crazy offseason, the Raiders released Brown six months after a high-profile trade to acquire him.
It’s safe to say that Brown’s time with the Raiders will go down as one of the zaniest stories in sports history.
Antonio Brown asked for his release, got it
Let’s start the Brown story back before Week 17 of last season. That’s when it really started to get crazy.
Brown had an argument with Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger at a Wednesday practice, skipped meetings and practices, then showed up Sunday ready to play in a must-win game. The Steelers deactivated him, and that basically set in motion the end of his Pittsburgh career.
Brown, after basically nixing a trade to Buffalo by threatening to not report to the Bills, was sent to the Raiders for a third- and fifth-round pick. He got a raise. Everyone seemed happy.
It wouldn’t take long to unravel. There were early warning signs, like continued public feuds with former Steelers teammates Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster. Then at the start of training camp, everything went off the rails.
To sum up the madness, Brown (long breath) burned his feet in a cryotherapy mishap, fought the NFL over use of an outdated helmet, left the team while he threatened to sit out over the helmet issue, lost a grievance with the NFL over the helmet, was told his preferred replacement helmet wasn’t safe, complained about the NFL again, finally settled on a new helmet and reported, skipped enough meetings and practices to get fined more than $50,000, posted the fine letter to social media, got in a heated argument with GM Mike Mayock during practice, apologized after the Raiders threatened suspension, was told he could play Week 1, posted a video of a phone call with Jon Gruden to YouTube, was fined for the Mayock incident, was told his guaranteed money was voided, vowed to not play for the Raiders again, asked for his release, and was released on Saturday morning.
Everything in that last paragraph happened in a little more than a month.
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