I admit it: every time I see the words “Antonio Brown” in a title, it’s a must-read, whatever it is. It’s almost always a great mix of entertainment, quirky behavior, and something that makes you think, “That’s not what I expected to read.”
Brown’s adventurous run as owner of the Albany Empire, an arena football team, is a prime example. These stories have all been amazing.
Brown gave us a lot of entertainment because everything is so weird. You know the stories of bouncing paychecks; players complain about being kicked out of their team hotel; Brown misses a deadline to get a medical, thus canceling his plans to be able to activate and play; and the coach and some of the more prominent players quit a few weeks into the season.
Then, last weekend, Brown was kicked out of the team hotel due to noise complaints and suspicions of smoking marijuana inside.
Brown’s room? Cannabis use?
Nah, never. …
The story is on Brown’s mark, but think about it for a minute and it makes you shake your head. He’s the owner of the team and he’s the one who got kicked out of the hotel for acting like a jerk.
Brown also made it clear that he wanted to replace Shannon Sharpe as co-host of “Undisputed” with Skip Bayless, which is comical. Thing is, I would never think of watching this show with Sharpe and Bayless, but if Brown joins…
There’s no doubt that Brown’s stories are as entertaining as Brown was when he was in black and gold and making huge plays and spectacular catches week after week. He’s easily in conversation with Jerry Rice and Randy Moss as the greatest wide receiver I’ve seen, and his ability to play made everyone stop and watch when the Steelers have the ball.
His post-Steelers career was entertaining like a train wreck. It’s a disaster, and even if we all want to look away and not see it, we can’t.
This is precisely why a large part of me is both sad and amused when I read these stories. Brown could have been the greatest of all time and he could still probably put the finishing touches to a Hall of Fame career.
Instead, it became a clown show and a circus, one without the three rings, the tent, or the elephants. He was given lifeline after lifeline by NFL teams who thought they could exploit his antics and win a bunch of games with his talent.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came close to that by winning a Super Bowl with him, but he even burned them and Tom Brady. You remember this episode, don’t you? The one where he took off his pads and shirt and ran off the field in New York, then spent the next few months crushing the team and Brady.
Brown is, in many ways, the gift that keeps on giving for the entertainment aspect of journalism. There are apparently stories popping up of him behaving badly or weirdly and they always get a lot of readers.
But when do we start to ignore Brown and find his act rude and, frankly, boring? When do all the people who helped him and continue to help him leave? When all the people who tried to support him and help him go?
We’re probably not there yet, but it looks like we’re getting closer to that with each of these new stories emerging. Brown renders himself useless despite all his attempts to make headlines.
It’s a sad story that we see unfold almost as if it were a Greek tragedy. In fact, cross out that “almost” because if you look at the definition of a Greek tragedy, you see that all of this is definitely a Greek tragedy.
Brown hopefully finds what he’s looking for sooner rather than later, as it seems this story is destined to have an unhappy ending. I certainly don’t hope for it or wish it, but I only mention it because it’s what pops into my head (right after laughing at all the crazy stuff) every time I read one of these stories.
His career as a Steeler cannot be forgotten. He is one of the greatest players in the history of the team. He absolutely should be in the Steelers Hall of Honor one day. His off-pitch antics and even his on-pitch antics cannot diminish the player he was and what he actually achieved.
And while his post-Steelers career was entertaining, it was big scare and a whole lot of action and antics that are actually a sad cry for help more than anything.
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