Funny thing about the media.
How they report on things often has more to do if they like you. If they like you, they will overlook you lying to their faces. If they don’t like you, they will overlook factual information presented to them. Don’t get me wrong, the media often has reason to like or dislike a player, coach, or someone in management.
Everyone is human, and while our job is to be unbiased, it can still be hard for the best of media, especially in this hot take era.
There are many reasons why someone might not care for Antonio Brown. There have been times where he has been 100% in the wrong, and even he admits he should have handled his departure better from the Bucs. Running around shitless in the end zone probably didn’t help his credibility much.
The facts as they come out, though, paint a different picture of what went down before the shirt came off.
Bruce Arians has continually lied about AB, telling him his ankle was why he couldn’t go back in the game. It was he said/she said for a while, but now we apparently have some hard core evidence. AB will appear on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, and here are the receipts he is pulling out on Arians.
BRYANT GUMBEL: According to the team– you didn’t say anything to either Coach Bruce Arians or the team’s medical personnel– on– during the game or on the sidelines on January 2nd. True or false?
ANTONIO BROWN: False.
SEAN BURSTYN: We actually, Bryant, have documentary and contemporaneous evidence that Antonio did tell Bruce Arians that his ankle was hurt on the sideline. Because the general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers interviewed Bruce Arians the Sunday night shortly after the game and texted our camp the notes from that interview, which state that Bruce Arians told the GM that Antonio complained on the sideline about his ankle injury. So there’s no question. I think both sides, at least privately, are in agreement that Antonio’s ankle was injured and he directly told the team about that.
BRYANT GUMBEL: Arians says, that when he told you to go in the game you said nothing about pain or injury. True?
ANTONIO BROWN: Untrue. Man, I told him my ankle. And he said, “What?” He said, “Get the fuck outta here, you’re done.”
BRYANT GUMBEL: He said you said, quote, “I ain’t playing. I ain’t gettin’ the ball.” Is that a lie?
ANTONIO BROWN: No, no. That’s a lie.
BRYANT GUMBEL: Flat out lie.
ANTONIO BROWN: Flat out lie.
BRYANT GUMBEL: Prior to the game on January 2nd, the game against the New York Jets– at the Meadowlands– were you given shots of Toradol?
ANTONIO BROWN: Absolutely. Right before the game I was given Toradol.
SEAN BURSTYN: We actually have, Bryant, in the medical records that we’ve reviewed, evidence that the team regularly injected Antonio with Toradol. So he couldn’t feel the damage that he was doing to his ankle until it got to that threshold point where he told his coach, “Coach, I can’t play because of my ankle.” And the coach’s response to that was, “Get the eff off the field.”
BRYANT GUMBEL: Okay, so– so the Bucs shot you with Toradol in the week before– before the Carolina game, correct?
ANTONIO BROWN: Absolutely.
BRYANT GUMBEL: They shot you again before the Jets game, correct?
ANTONIO BROWN: Absolutely.
BRYANT GUMBEL: And Arians claims that at halftime then you were upset about not getting ball– more balls thrown your way. True or false? Is he lying?
ANTONIO BROWN: False. it’s not worryin’ about the ball. Tom Brady is my guy. He’s the reason I’m on Tampa Bay, so I know I’m gonna get the ball.
ANTONIO BROWN: Yeah, these guys at Tampa Bay Bucs tried to make an agreement with me to give me $200,000 to go to the crazy house so these guys could look like they know what they’re talking about.
BRYANT GUMBEL: They offered you $200,000 for what?
SEAN BURSTYN: The off– the offer was Antonio would basically sit on the sidelines, go on some list– and commit himself to some form of intensive mental health treatment. And we were specifically told, in writing, by the general manager, twice, “Don’t spin this any other way.”
Who do you believe?
Take the names out of it, look at the situation, and ask yourself what makes the most sense?
Flip the page for the snippet from the interview.