If you can possibly believe it, the Antonio Brown saga has taken yet another turn this AM. The Raiders wide receiver just posted a lengthy Instagram post that ended with him asking for his “release” from the organization (via Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com on Twitter).
“I have worked my whole life to prove that the system is blind to see talent like mines,” Brown wrote. “Now that everyone sees it, they want me to conform to that same system that has failed me all those years. “I’m not mad at anyone. I’m just asking for the freedom to prove them all wrong.” Release me @raiders.”
ESPN’s Adam Schefter provides a bit of context (via Twitter), noting that Brown was fined $215K last night for “conduct detrimental to the team” (stemming from an incident earlier this week). Thanks to the fine, the Raiders voided the more than $29MM worth of guaranteed money on the receiver’s contract. Schefter adds that the Raiders also sent Brown a letter stating that he “no longer will be entitled to termination pay” should he be released.
Meanwhile, ESPN’s Jeff Darlington tweets that he received an email from Brown this morning, with the wideout lamenting that the organization “took away my guarantees.” The receiver added that there’s “no way I play after they took that and made my contract week to week.”
Even with the financial context, “release me” could still be up for interpretation, potentially providing the player and organization with one more out. Considering Brown’s erratic behavior throughout the offseason, one could argue that Brown was asking the organization to ‘let him be himself.’ On the flip side, after days of reports that the Raiders could look to void the receiver’s guarantees before ultimately releasing him, perhaps Antonio could have opted for a better word. Considering the twists and turns of this ordeal, either explanation wouldn’t be all that surprising.
Last night, Brown remained on track to suit up for the Raiders’ Week 1 game against the Broncos on Monday night in Oakland. This revelation followed a confrontation with Mike Mayock, an incident for which Brown was fined (not suspended). Then, last night, Brown shared a video that revealed his private conversation with head coach Jon Gruden.
Bye Felicia! #crazy
Hell no. The Raiders will make him sit out every game. He pissed off Mayock something fierce so be prepared for this to go on for awhile.
He’s still under contract for the Raiders, he just isn’t guaranteed any money unless he plays.
About that…. lmao
I’d like to be released from Antonio Brown.
This. Can’t be many left in the NFL that want to deal with this guy. Maybe there are, but not to the tune of $30 mil guaranteed. Maybe the NFL should’ve banned his helmet 10 years ago.
Lol
I’ve read a lot of Antonio Brown comments today and over the last few days, I have not related to any comment more than this travbot haha, tired of waking up to Antonio Brown alerts from every sports app I have #releasemeAB
He is an idiot. This reminds me when the Lions were dealing with Titus Young. He has lost his mind.
Yes
And Gruden threw his GM under the bus to cater to this idiot….Gruden is almost as dumb as AB.
Get rid of this cancer.
Wonder what Gruden and Mayock’s relationship will be like going forward…pretty obvious that Gruden and most probably the owner put pressure on Mayock to tuck his tail between his legs and let Brown be Brown….as a Giants fan, this seems eerily familiar, to the drama with Odelle that the organization had to put up with in the last 2 years.
As a Giants fan as well, Odell’s drama is nowhere near AB’s. AB is in a diva class all by himself. Even still, the Giants dumped OBJ because of the drama. Raiders would be fools to hold on to AB. Unless they want to stick it to him or prevent him from joining another team.
Antonio Brown should use his talent to learn the violin.
It’s obviously all the Steelers fault. Big Ben’s fault. Tomlin’s fault. It never falls on AB, right? All the team’s fault?
Total narcissist
Welcome to the new American way.
So what’s the deal? You guys have one reporter and he’s stuck in Oakland or something?
That has to be it. I mean, seriously, how could more than one reporter be interested in getting this sort of news, right? (sarcasm intended)
Wow…Truly one of the most bizarre situations yet. No one has for a second denied his talent…And, dude is getting paid premium for playing when he wants to play. If he wants to prove his greatness, go to a team without a receiving core, lose the ego, and lead. Help develop the receiver machine that exists at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was developing receivers as a matter of course LONG before AB stepped in the building. AB is LUCKY to have been trained and mentored by some of the game’s greats. Time to pay it back/forward if he wants to be mentioned in the same sentence!
He won’t do that because he’s not a leader. he lives in a world inside his own head where no matter what he does he feels he will never be respected because he’s insecure and needs the attention. It’s truly bordering on mentally unstable.
Do they not realize that this is Antonio mr big chest brown? And that they’re making him follow rules? How dare they!
Dude has CTE for sure. Makes Owens look like a saint.
Or, he’s just an egotistical nutjob.
Or both
Smart of Oakland to build in language for this guy to lose his guarantees if he starts acting like he did in Pittsburgh. Dumb of this guy to act like that all the while knowing he could lose those guarantees.
Beyond that, he’s turned this whole damn thing into a side show. Football needs to crack down on stuff like this and just play the damn game.
This is starting to make sense now.
The Raiders canceled the guarantees but had to let him play to keep it all extra clean. The goal is getting AB to quit instead of risking a dispute and settlement over a release.
If AB decides to stay on a weekly deal to try to rebuild his value in the NFL that wouldn’t be a terrible deal for the raiders and it’s ABs only job option that exceeds minimum wage at this point.
He’ll never get traded.
That headache is not worth the contract …. or is it
That contract is not worth the headache LOL
9th year in the NFL and suddenly he starts acting like this and becomes the most vilified player in the league?
C’mon, there’s obviously something wrong that wasn’t there for at least half his NFL career.
I don’t think this is a situation like those “Manny Being Manny” antics in MLB and I honestly don’t think it’s as simple as narcissism
It’s not sudden. There were pretty clear signs in his early years that his ego was on another level. Remember him yelling at his own D at practice telling them not to touch him because he’s “the franchise?”.
Only now, he’s not bound to an organization that enables him.
Every elite player has done that: at every level of sports.
The difference now is social media (including the players who should stay off it)
Jordan was abusive af to teammates but the whole idea of “keeping disputes in the family” has gone out the window in favor of sending Tweets (by players who should stay off it)
Jordan and Manny never threatened violence against against office personnel (to my knowledge). For that alone is serious discussion for permanent dismissal, otherwise eventually other “elites” will do the same. It sets precedent. Yeah, maybe there’s something more to this, but…Occam’s razor, it’s pride and lack of respect and discipline for authority.
The “system”? GMAFB, you don’t show up, you don’t get paid. It’s an adult world, deal with it.
No way man, Jerry Rice never pulled this crap and was supportive of teammates and the team in general
This situation is just like in any industry now a days, if you’re seen as a great money making opportunity, or have enough power, you’re allowed a much longer leash.
And though this was the situation in the past, a lot of factors (social media, 24 hr news cycles, that idiot drumph, etc) have made it more common and acceptable today…
Just listen to him, AB sounds just like king orange: never takes responsibility, is always right, it’s a “conspiracy” against him…this is the new normal because we’ve let it become so, or even worse, because we made it so.
We’re all to blame for giving these giant babies the attention that is they’re underlying motivation for all they’re bad behavior
Have you read some of the interviews with Rice after he retired?
Cam, the difference is that he’s not just hurting his team anymore; he’s hurting himself. Throwing away 30 million is not normal. If he was just being a narcissist, that wouldn’t happen.
I completely agree. If you read that Instagram post, he doesn’t even sound coherent. Has he started doing drugs? Is it on the onset of CTE? Has a mental illness set in? Why else would he act like this and throw away 30 million?
I agree. There were always diva qualities about him, but to go completely off the rails over the past year and certainly the last couple months? It’s either an act or he’s legitimately, mentally unstable. He makes T.O. look like a choir boy!
Perhaps he’s scared that with a new QB, people will realize he’s not as talented as he thinks he is. Remember what happened when Ben was injured? AB was a mere mortal with his backup. Perhaps he doesn’t want to be exposed, so acts like a jackass. NFL and the fans are better off without him
AB had got to be one of the most entitled, egotistical nutters in NFL history. He has completely lost touch with reality – and when you think he can’t possibly dig a hole any deeper, he finds a way.
No, the system hasn’t failed you – you’ve failed yourself. All AB had to do was not royally screw up, and he couldn’t even manage that.
Yeah, act like that at any other job or only show up when you feel like it? Good luck. It doesn’t matter how good you are at packing boxes or cutting hair, they’d rather have someone else
Will any team sign him once he’s released? I know he’s one of the best WRs in the league and has been for years but will anybody want him in their locker room?
The Toronto argonauts maybe or the Montréal alouettes if he can learn french but then he will probably be a big star in the XFL
Heading to NE maybe??
I truly hope so. The probably surefire way to get Bwady to retire after he doesn’t throw Brown’s way and Brown gets in his face or throws a football at him.
No chance.
Oh yea. Kraft is wiping the drool off Belichick’s chin as we type
That’s probably an image nobody needed in their heads, sorry
I hope people in the area are looking up to make sure nobody is on a balcony throwing furniture down at them.
If the Raiders fine him enough every week, but won’t suspend him, they could get AB for the league minimum. Genius!
I was in Antonio Brown’s corner (because his talent is other worldly, and it’s so hard to replace that) until he used that reprehensible “c” word at Mike Mayock. For that, he should have been banned from the league anyways, but it was swept under the rug. I personally hope this is the last we see of Antonio Brown, but his talent will have teams lined up for him, but they will need a strong structure to keep him in line, and I don’t see any team having the structure to keep him interested in playing football and less on the drama.
He’s a petulant child.
If AB loses his guaranteed money, does his agent lose his share?
Why wouldn’t the NFL go after Brown for calling the GM a “CRACKER “
Cracker, sometimes white cracker or cracka, is a term for white people, used especially for poor rural whites in the Southern United States. It has been taken as an offensive and derogatory term to people of Caucasian or European descent and is largely considered a slur in modern usage
Some people prefer the term “saltine American”
The NFL needs to suspend him for this season and he needs inpatient mental health treatment.
I live 2,000 miles away from Pittsburgh but I can hear the sighs of relief and laughter coming from that city.
People like Antonio Clown should be required to learn English before they become an athlete
So, let me understand this. Am I correct that if AB doesn’t play, and the Raiders don’t release him, then he doesn’t count against the cap and all that they lose is a roster spot until he decides to act like a professional? Am I wrong? What am I missing here?
He will end up in NE or the Jets
Never, the Jets. They don’t have any a circus
Dear AB, I believe you misspoke and meant to say “Terminate my contract”
Honestly .. This story is starting to get boring
If I wrote all this as a fictional story and sent it to Hollywood to be considered for a movie, I’m confident I’d get a rejection along the lines of, “Sorry, needs to be FAR more believable than this…”
Please release him so he can go to a real football team. This looks so bad on the Raiders organization to not be able to even get this guy on the field. AB has been trying to escape the slave owner mentality in the NFL and ran into another egomaniac white man that wants to hold him back. Robert Kraft would’ve done better. Raiders are done.
Funniest comment I’ve read yet about AB! That poor slave with a multi-million dollar contract!
What an insult to those who were actual slaves and who truly suffered
What do you know about slavery, you privileged keyboard warrior? 100 bucks says you’re white
No, the Pats will never pay him what he wants and will not let him do what he does. Well as I was typing an alert just flashed that he has been released. If he plays, he will never get that much guaranteed anymore from anyone.
If its Brown, Flush it Down!!!!!
Bottom line on ESPN said AB was released
Cocaine’s a hell of a drug. Seriously piss test. Head scan. 30M down the toilet? Narcissist isn’t even the start look at his KIDS names. Antonio Brown Jr., Autonomy Brown, Antanyiah Brown, Ali Brown. I mean I’m surprised he didn’t name them all Antonio like George Foreman.
Either he is the biggest idiot, a quitter or he simply didn’t want to play football (or all of the above). He constantly looked for reasons not to play/quit. He quit on the Steelers because he wasn’t offensive MVP; he quit on paying his personal chef because of a fish head in the freezer that he deemed some Scarface like threat. With the Raiders, he tried everything to find a reason NOT to play. Now the only question is whether he will be broke or irrelevant first.
Wrong movie reference.
Fish head = Godfather
Chainsaw = Scarface