Antonio Brown made quite the scene last Sunday as he stripped out of his gear and ran out of MetLife Stadium in nothing but his Bucs pants. Many were confused as to why AB chose to do this, although it was quickly revealed that Brown was dealing with a significant injury and that Bucs head coach Bruce Arians was not accommodating of it. Brown claims he was being forced to play and that he was upset with how the organization was treating his physical well-being.
Immediately after the incident, the Bucs stated that Brown would be released by the organization, however, up until today, an official release had yet to be executed. That all changed as this afternoon, the team issued a statement saying that Brown is no longer with the team. In the same statement, the team also tried to refute some of AB's claims.
"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have terminated the contract of Antonio Brown, effective immediately," the team stated. "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. We have attempted, multiple times throughout this week, to schedule an evaluation by an outside orthopedic specialist, yet Antonio has not complied. Maintaining the health and wellness of our players is of the utmost importance to our organization."
Of course, earlier today, AB exposed some alleged text messages he exchanged with Arians that suggest the head coach knew he was in trouble as far as his ankle is concerned. Brown also went through the trouble of thanking his former teammates for all of their support as he firmly believes they did nothing wrong in this scenario.
"Don’t get it twisted. My brothers have been good to me. From Tom to practice squad, we were a top-level unit," he tweeted. "They have been good to me and knew nothing about my talks with coach last week. The team mishandled this situation. They let me down and, more importantly, my teammates."
Stay tuned to HNHH as we will continue to bring you updates on this situation.
