Could the Buccaneers and Bruce Arians get in trouble for forcing Antonio Brown to play through injury?
The Antonio Brown and Tampa Bay Buccaneers' saga is not over yet. Today, Antonio Brown posted alleged texts between him and Bucs head coach Bruce Arians.
Health over Wealth # Barbarian https://t.co/5pxjpZ6491
If the tweets are real, Arians and the organization could be in trouble. So the question is, are the tweets true?
Antonio Brown says that Arians knew that he had an injured ankle. Brown goes on to allege that Arians made him play in the game on Sunday against the New York Jets anyway, a claim that the team denies.
Antonio Brown says Arians told him that, if he didn't play, he was done.
He, also, said his teammates had no clue about what was happening between him and Arians or about his injury.
Antonio Brown posted this from his Twitter account:
Don’t get it twisted. My brothers have been good to me. From Tom to practice squad, we were a top-level unit. 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.
“Don’t get it twisted. My brothers have been good to me. From Tom to practice squad, we were a top-level unit. 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,”
The questions now are, who is telling the truth, and will the NFL investigate? Brown is making some heavy allegations against the team, which from the text that he supposedly sent, may be true, but can what Brown said be trusted?
Antonio Brown lied in the past
Even though it looks as if Brown might be telling the truth, it's hard to believe him because of lies he has told in the past. If the NFL looked at the footage from Sunday, it doesn't look as if Brown's ankle is bothering him.
His actions before leaving the field are not exactly convincing people that he was hurt or had been hurt. As he left the field Sunday, he was jumping up and down as if he were happy to be exiting the game.
Also, Brown was suspended recently for lying about his COVID vaccination status, so it would be understandable if the NFL were a little skeptical about what the star wide out is saying now about being injured.
Antonio Brown loves drama and attention. This is the fourth team he has been on in the past three years. Before the Bucs, he was with the Pittsburgh Steelers, New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders.
Many NFL experts thought his career may be over after the fallout with the Raiders, but Brown is too talented not to be playing somewhere, so Tampa gave him a shot.
But it looks apparent that, once again, he has betrayed the team that gave him another chance.