Arguably the most bizarre retirement tour in sports history has possibly reached its climax as former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown, once considered the game’s most elite wideout, vowed to never play in the NFL again.
Just two days after seemingly contrite Twitter posts that thanked the New England Patriots for giving him an opportunity to play after his disastrous tenure with the Raiders, Brown took to his now-infamous account and announced to his 1.6 million followers that he’s not coming back to the NFL.
In the tweet Brown alluded to the Patriots voiding his $9.1 million signing bonus, saying “These owners can cancel deals and do whatever they want at any time. We will see if the NFLPA holds them accountable. Sad they can just void guarantees anytime… We will see if they pay up!”
It was just three weeks after Mike Mayock and the Raiders had voided $29.1 million of Brown’s guaranteed money after his running string of deranged behavior.
Not only did Brown naturally voice his displease with his financial perils, he then went on to blast Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
He posted a picture of himself and former trainer Britney Taylor, who accused him of rape earlier this month, slapping ‘fives’ in a foam pit with the caption “Kraft got caught in the parlor, AB speculations fired. Different strokes, different folks clearly”, alluding to Kraft’s supposed role in a series of events that got him charged with “soliciting another to commit prostitution” as Kraft was allegedly receiving oral sex in a Jupiter, Florida massage parlor on a regular basis.
Brown then dropped a screenshot of an old article written about Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger being investigated for sexual assault in 2010, which also mentioned Roethlisberger also being accused of rape two years earlier.
Brown’s nightmare with New England followed his utterly embarrassing month with the now-humiliated Oakland Raiders.
Brown had missed extended time because of a cryotherapy ‘accident’ in which he suffered frostbite on his feet, then he missed practices because of a helmet grievance, then nearly came to blows with general manager Mike Mayock, then hired a public relations firm to brainstorm ways to self-sabotage his way off the team. All in the span of about four weeks.
Brown is 31 years old and has accumulated 11,263 receiving yards (34th all time) and 75 touchdowns for his career.
UPDATE: Brown has deleted the tweets regarding Ben Roethlisberger and Robert Kraft.