By Jordan Long
The Oakland Raiders thought they upgraded the offense by trading with the Pittsburgh Steelers for wide receiver Antonio Brown on March 13th. They were hoping adding Brown would give quarterback Derek Carr another playmaker for the offense to be more dangerous.
It hasn’t worked out to this point. Brown sat out most of training camp and preseason over frostbite to his feet he suffered in cryotherapy and then he had a helmet issue. The helmet he likes didn’t meet the criteria that the NFL uses for player safety. His helmet was 10 years old and wasn’t certified by the NFL. At the very end of training camp, Brown finally found a helmet that is licensed by the NFL
This was going to be the end of his refusal to play. He was practicing with the team and was going to be ready to perform for Oakland’s offense. Oakland fined him $13,950 for not participating in the Raiders walk through practice on August 22nd when Oakland was preparing to take on Green Bay. They also docked him $40,000 for missing training camp on August 18th. Brown posted the letter sent to him by the Raiders about the fine on Instagram for the whole world to see. According to USAtoday.com, Brown posted, “When your own team want to hate but there’s no stopping me now devil is a lie. Everyone got pay this year so we clear.”
It was the wrong move to post the letter on social media. Everybody can now see how much Brown was fined rather than paying it and keeping it private. He feels Oakland is in the wrong when he didn’t show up to important team matters but Oakland had to do something which was hit him in the pocketbook.
Now that should have been the end of it with Brown. Brown needed to learn his lesson, but there was more to come. Oakland was preparing to take on the Denver Broncos on Monday Night Football. Brown and General Manager Mike Mayock were in a heated screaming match. When it was over, Brown allegedly told Mayock that he would hit him in the face and punted a football towards Mayock to voice his frustration.
Oakland may want to let him go and is looking into voiding his contract. He has been nothing but trouble since Brown was traded to Oakland. The biggest problem trying to release him is his contract. Brown is under contract for this season. The total deal for both years equals $30 million, a lot of money in dead cap space.
This issue must be resolved. Brown doesn’t care that his actions seem more important than the team. They are better off trying to let him go which could protect them from another big headache with Brown.
Leave a Reply