Bruce Arians usually does not talk to the media on Thursdays, but today the Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach met with reporters to discuss Antonio Brown’s release.
Bruce Arians explains in detail what happened with Antonio Brown on Sunday. pic.twitter.com/1g45Ib9to1
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 6, 2022
“At no point and time during that game did he (Antonio Brown) ever ask the trainer or doctor about his ankle. That’s the normal protocol, you go through protocols during the game,” said Arians regarding Brown’s ankle injury that happened ahead of their game on Sunday against the New York Jets.
While Brown alleges that Arians knew of Brown’s injury before the game, Buccaneers GM Jason Light says that Brown did not tell anyone on the Bucs medical staff that he was injured on game-day.
Antonio Brown did not tell anyone on the Bucs’ medical staff about his ankle bothering him on gameday before the game against the Jets or during it, per Bucs’ GM Jason Licht.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2022
Arians went on to say that Brown was very agitated that he was not seeing the ball enough prior to the incident of him walking off the field last weekend.
“He refused to go back into the game, that’s when I look back and saw him basically wave off the coach,” said Arians.
Arians then was told by Brown that he wasn’t going back in because he wasn’t getting the ball.
“That’s when I said you’re done, get the F out of here and that’s the end of it,” said Arians. “We’re working on playing Carolina, that’s the end of the story and hopefully it ends today.”
Another wrinkle to the Antonio Brown story is the bonuses that Antonio Brown was close to receiving for achieving some of the goals that were in his contract.
Brown only needed 8 more catches, 55 more receiving yards, and 1 touchdown to receive over $1 million in bonuses, which will now obviously not be met.
Antonio Brown needed:
8 more catches to unlock a $333,333 bonus.
He also needed 55 receiving yards to unlock another $333,333 bonus.
He also needed just 1 receiving TD to unlock another $333,333 bonus.
This was a costly outburst.
— Spotrac (@spotrac) January 2, 2022
A report by Adam Schefter this afternoon detailed that Antonio Brown and his agent asked the Buccaneers last week for his incentive money to be guaranteed this season, but the Buccaneers declined.
Last week, Antonio Brown and his agent requested that the remaining $2 million in incentives in his contract for this season be guaranteed, per Bucs’ GM Jason Licht. The team declined to guarantee those incentives.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 6, 2022
