How Antonio Brown ended up in New England
Antonio Brown in his New Patriots uniform ready for practice. Photo from bleacherreport.com
Brown kicking punter Spencer Lanning. Photo by ESPN.com
By Alex Bozek
Sports Editor
Antonio Brown went from Pittsburgh to Oakland to New England, and this is how it all happened.
Antonio Brown is known as one of the, if not the, best wide receiver in the NFL today. His agility is off the charts, and his hands are like ones we have never seen before. He is a 7-time NFL Pro Bowl and a 4 time All-Pro. He has had over 11,000 receiving and 78 touchdowns. Brown is truly a freak of nature.
So far in his eight-year career, with 2019 being his ninth season, he has proven himself to be one of the best in the league. Throughout his career, Brown has been known for having an ego, but that is not new in professional athletes. During the past year he has started to show his true colors. From signing a monster contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers, to going out west to Oakland and now being signed to the Patriots dynasty, it has been a circus and here is the story.
July 2012 – Pittsburgh signs Brown to a five-year, $42.5 million contract. Coming off of a season of over 1,000 yards and 69 catches, the Steelers wanted to keep a hold of him for the long run. 2011 was his first Pro Bowl selection as well.
September 2014 – Brown got fined $8,200 for running over the kicker on a kickoff return, but on his return, he kicked the kicker in the facemask. He said it was an accident, but few believed him.
September-October 2016 – Brown gets fined a total of $39,500 through the first four weeks, all for twerking on two separate occasions. He did it in week 1 in Washington and week 4 home in Pittsburgh.
This is where it starts to get very serious.
February 2017 – Police were notified that Brown was accused of being involved in a domestic dispute
the month after the accusation that he “pushed the mother of one of his children after she asked him for reimbursement for a haircut.” Police said that he was not arrested. He then got a contract extension later in the month for four more years and $68 million. He became the highest-paid receiver in the league then.
October 2018 – Brown was arrested by the police yet again. He was accused of “nearly killing a toddler in April because he was throwing furniture from his top story apartment.” The case was resolved when he supposedly blamed it on someone else just to finish the lawsuit.
December 2018 – The downfall of Brown in Pittsburgh seemed to be starting now. He and his starting quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, got into an argument before the last game of the season. He started his tradition of skipping practices got benched. He asked to be moved to another team after that.
February 2019 – He was in trouble with the law again. It was revealed that he was arrested on reckless driving only 3 months prior for going over 100 mph.
March 2019 – Pittsburgh had enough of him on the team so they moved him out west to Oakland to join the Raiders. They go a third-round and fifth-round pick for the upcoming draft.
August 2019 – Brown’s true ego starts coming alive. He infamously missed practice for getting frostbit using a cold chamber to recover from a practice, causing him to miss even more. The NFL has a rule saying that each player has to change their helmets after 10-years of use. Brown did not want to abide by this so he fought the NFL on it and sat out practices for over two weeks.
September 2019 PART 1 – The Raiders’ head office notified Brown that their general manager Mike Mayock will fine him for unexcused missing practices. He was fined $40,000. Brown got into a serious conversation with Mayock where he called Mayock a racial slur and threatened him. He posted a video on YouTube of him and head coach John Gruden talking about what was going on. Gruden did not know that the conversation was being recorded and that it would be posted. He was fined $219,000 for the fight with Mayock and they took away $29 million of his contract with the Raiders.
September 2019 PART 2 – Antonio Brown moves to his third team in less than six months. He was released by the Oakland Raiders and gets signed as a free agent by the New England Patriots for a one-year $15 million contract, which contained a $9 million signing bonus.
September 2019 PART 3 – YBrown has not even played a minute of football with the Patriots up to this point and he is already on the front-page news due to his most recent conflict with the law. He is facing accusations of raping and sexually assaulting a trainer on one of his former teams. The allegations state this happened three times. There are rumors saying that he will end up on the commissioner’s exempt list. This means that he will be unable to play for each week that he is on the list.
Over the course of 5 years, Antonio Brown’s picture in the public has turned upside down. The once face of the NFL has turned into the face of the TMZ website. His name is everywhere for the wrong reasons.The Patriots are taking a huge risk in signing Brown. Other teams were reluctant because of the ego and baggage that came along with his outstanding skills. If anyone can get the best out of a player, it will be Bill Belichick. The dynasty gets even bigger in New England, and it will certainly be interesting to see how it will play out this 2019 season.