The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are digging in when it comes to the Antonio Brown situation.
The receiver recently shared text messages that are claiming to be between him and head coach Bruce Arians.
Brown’s case is that Arians and the team knew his ankle was injured before Sunday’s game, only for the coach to kick Brown off the sidelines when he couldn’t go back into the game.
The Buccaneers have a different take and decided to officially release Brown on Thursday.
They also sent out a telling statement.
Bucs’ official statement on terminating the contract of Antonio Brown: pic.twitter.com/XjGeercY7U
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2022
“While Antonio did receive treatment on his ankle and was listed on the injury report the week leading up to last Sunday’s game, he was cleared to play by our medical team prior to the start of the game and at no point during the game did he indicate to our medical personnel that he could not play.”
The second side to the story is officially here and the final outcome is Brown being let go.
Buccaneers Have Their Own Side
ESPN’s Adam Schefter shared an interesting tweet on the matter as well.
One other note to this saga, per Bucs’ sources: At halftime of Sunday’s game against the Jets, Antonio Brown was agitated about not getting the targets he was expecting during the game and had to be calmed down.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2022
It is important to note that Schefter’s information is coming from the team.
He explains how the team claims Brown was mad about not getting enough targets.
Why is that important?
Well, he had around $1 million in regular-season incentives he could hit with just a few more catches, yards, and touchdowns.
Schefter also revealed, according to Bucs GM Jason Licht, that Brown wanted all the incentives remaining for the year guaranteed.
Last week, Antonio Brown and his agent requested that the remaining $2 million in incentives in his contract for this season be guaranteed, per Bucs’ GM Jason Licht. The team declined to guarantee those incentives.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2022
This situation is a giant mess and the Buccaneers releasing Brown eliminates the need for the team to pursue any sort of medical tests for the receiver.
They can just move on, stick to their story, and focus on the postseason.
Both sides being so far apart on their supposed facts may mean an NFL investigation is not even necessary.
Leave a Reply