In a lengthy statement released Wednesday night, Antonio Brown accused the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of pressuring him to play through a debilitating ankle injury. Now he’s been released.
Then, shortly after his lawyer released the statement, Brown accused the team of executing an “ongoing cover-up,” saying he was actually cut before leaving the field Sunday against the New York Jets.
The mercurial receiver said that he relented when pressured by a coach to play with an ankle injury and was injected with what he describes as a “powerful and sometimes dangerous painkiller.”
When the pain limited his performance, he said he exited the game when he claims he was “ordered” on the sideline by a coach to return to the field.
“I told him, ‘It’s my ankle.’ But he knew that. It was well-documented and we had discussed it,” Brown said. “He then ordered me to get on the field. I said, ‘Coach, I can’t.’ He didn’t call for medical attention. Instead, he shouted at me, ’YOU’RE DONE!’ while he ran his finger across his throat. Coach was telling me that if I didn’t play hurt, then I was done with the Bucs.”
After the game, Bucs coach Bruce Arians said Brown made no mention of an injury before leaving the field, something Brown said Wednesday was “100% inaccurate.” In addition to missing several games with the injury, Brown said that he and Arians exchanged texts that show Arians’ knowledge of the injury—as well as Bucs general manager Jason Licht’s.
“Yes, [I] walked off the field. But there’s a major difference between launching from the line and taking hits, compared to jogging off the field with a rush of emotions going through your mind,” Brown wrote. “I am reflecting on my reaction, but there was a trigger. The trigger was someone telling me that I’m not allowed to feel pain. I acknowledge my past. But my past does not make me a second-class citizen. My past does not forfeit my right to be heard when I am in pain.”
In a different statement, Brown’s lawyer said that the receiver underwent an MRI on Monday that revealed bone and ligament damage that require surgery. He also denied that Brown’s actions had anything to do with a mental health issue.
“I gave the Bucs everything I had on the field. What the organization is doing now needs to get cleaned up,” Brown said. “I do not understand how people publicly claiming to be concerned about my mental health can do these things to me in private.”
