There will only be 25,000 fans at Raymond James Stadium for the Super Bowl, so if you listen carefully, you can hear Antonio Brown applauding. Antonio would like you to know that a lot has happened, okay? He has faced criticism from the media (for various accounts of sexual assault, including rape and sexual misconduct, and his attempts to intimidate someone who appeared). It was hard for Antonio.
And then there were the haters (who pointed out that along with the assault counts, he was sued for throwing furniture from a balcony on the 14th floor floor and nearly hitting a 22-month-old and a walking grandfather). down the street; he reached an undisclosed deal with the family). So hateful! And of course, there were the teams that gave him up, like the Steelers (who changed him after he tried to set the organization on fire) and the Raiders (who cut him off after trying to set him up). that organization on fire) and the Patriots (who tried to sign him at a good price and then cut him off because he was harassing a woman who showed up.) What rudeness with them!
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The Steelers, Raiders and Patriots don’t play in this Super Bowl, but Brown is, for the Buccaneers. And for that, Antonio Brown is “grateful.”
He said this word: grateful, many Wednesdays during his availability at the Super Bowl Zoom: “I’m so grateful to be here with my teammates, getting ready … very grateful … it’s a blessing to be here … super grateful.” That would be a wonderful attitude from someone who overcame cancer or had to play in the Canadian Football League for five years before finally having a chance in the NFL. He had a different feeling from Brown.
Brown has the right to defend himself. But he seems to be a victim and he is not. His list of transgressions is long. If Brown has learned anything in recent years, he doesn’t keep it to us. If he realizes his own faults, he will still not admit any of them.
“I would be doing a disservice if I talked about things that are not a focus of this game,” he said Wednesday.
There’s a time and place for that kind of response, like a few years ago, when rival corners Darrelle Revis and Richard Sherman came to the Super Bowl, and Revis made it clear that he didn’t want the whole week to be a word fight. between the two. But Brown’s words were both frightening and ridiculous from a man who once broadcast live the speech of a Steelers game after the playoffs in the locker room. He basically boycotted the Raiders training camp because he wanted to wear an obsolete helmet and clashed with a Raiders coach and general manager. And these things are far less troubling than stories of personal misconduct.
There is literally no one on either team who believed Brown was doing “bad service” by saying he regretted past behavior or that his problems were his own.
Brown said he has worked on controlling his emotions. And he said, a year ago, that “I think I should apologize to the entire NFL [for my past behavior]. I could have done a lot better. ” He said then that he was “the troubled kid, the guy who has problems,” and that bothered him.
I could have said it again on Wednesday. He might even have exposed those vague, narrow apologies that seem to address only his actions in the locker room. Instead, he left the lingering suspicion that he said all this a year ago just because he was looking for a job and now he has one, so it doesn’t matter.
“I’ve lived through a few things, but that’s life,” Brown said Wednesday. “We all have a history. We must all allow ourselves to grow in order to improve. I’m just grateful for the trip. “
Brown was not excluded from the NFL nor did he appear on the blacklist permanently, as it once seemed. It was not signed by anyone after being released by the Patriots in September 2019, as an NFL investigation was underway; served an eight-game suspension to begin 2020, related to a non-contest petition for theft and battery charges from a January incident and harassment of a woman who filed a sexual misconduct claim . But that was unrelated to the sexual assault accounts, for which he is still facing a civil lawsuit (a trial is currently scheduled for December). He found a franchise willing to take risks relative to a Hall of Fame talent, thanks in part to a star quarterback (Tom Brady) who had made him a friend and wanted him on the team.
But in refusing to admit that he did anything wrong, let alone show any contrition, Brown looked and looked like a boy he thinks has been persecuted. Maybe it was just the facade he put up on Wednesday. But if that’s how it really feels, there will be uglier chapters. If you think it should not change, it will cause more damage.
He framed everything in football terms. He said he has learned that “this game can be taken away at any time,” as if that was the big lesson. We can only imagine Roger Goodell’s reaction to this quote from Brown, after being asked about Goodell and saying he hasn’t spoken to the commissioner lately: [the league] I did a good job with the process of helping me get to this point. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to start my professional career again ”.
If Brown believes Goodell’s goal was to help Brown resume his career, that would be good news for Goodell.
“I want my legacy to be a persistent boy, a boy who never gave up, no matter the odds, no matter the hatred,” Brown said. “A sixth-round kid from downtown Michigan who never gave up. A boy who had the will of a champion ”.
In fact, he was a sixth-round pick from central Michigan, and it’s true that he never gave up, and that he could soon be champion. But life after football comes, sooner than Brown thinks. He dodged questions Wednesday. That doesn’t mean they leave.