Viewpoints – Selfish attitude leads to release for Brown

September, 18, 2019 | Gunner Young | campus editor

New England Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown has had quite the off-season, and after his recent trade, it has become apparent that this entire saga might have been at least partially orchestrated by him.

Either way, this attitude from a professional athlete is not acceptable.

The long-time Pittsburgh Steeler was traded to the Oakland Raiders this off-season and his time in California was controversial to say the least.

The chaos started when he began missing practices due to an injury from the misuse of a cryotherapy chamber. Although this was an odd injury, no one really blamed Brown.

Later that month, Brown had been disallowed from wearing his old helmet by the NFL due to safety concerns, and rather than conform to the safety rules, Brown threatened to retire if he was not able to wear his helmet. This left a bad taste in NFL fans and the Raiders’ mouths.

And that wasn’t even the worst of it.

Conflicts between Brown and Raiders owner Mike Mayock led to Brown posting some illiterate nonsense on Instagram, and in their first face-to-face meeting since the post, Brown allegedly threatened to hit Mayock and called him a “cracker.”

He also recorded a phone call between him and Raiders head coach Jon Gruden, which is illegal in California due to their double consent laws regarding recording.

These two incidents led to Brown’s release from the team. Soon after, he was swept up by the defending Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots.

This caused a media frenzy and made people skeptical of Brown’s behavior as if it was all just acting to get released from the Raiders.

The pieces fell together and really make it seem as though Brown turned up the heat on his already persistent drama to escalate the release rumors and force his way out.

Even if that isn’t the case, Brown’s behavior should be a red flag to every team wanting to sign him, and his attitude should take him off every team’s radar.