Antonio Brown accuses Buccaneers of trying to pay him $200k to go to the crazy house
Antonio Brown hasn’t remained silent since his abrupt departure from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over a month ago. He’s posted on all of his social media channels, given podcast interviews, and issued statements, and he’s still managed to stay current as a topic of conversation for many NFL fans.
That trend continued on Tuesday when HBO published a sample of an interview Brown gave for “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel” with his attorney Sean Burstyn. Brown talks about getting shot with Toradol, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine (NSAID) used to treat moderately severe pain and inflammation, as well as an offer from the Buccaneers to obtain mental treatment and other things in a nearly 2:30 minute video released by the show.
“We actually have in the medical records that we’ve reviewed, evidence that the team regularly injected Antonio with Toradol so he couldn’t feel the damage he was doing to his ankle until it got to that threshold point where he told his coach I can’t play and the coach’s response was ‘Get the F— off the field,'” Burstyn said in the clip.
Brown was also questioned if he was frustrated with his lack of targets, which he denied.
The most damaging aspect of the video, though, focused on Brown’s mental health and the accusation Brown and Burstyn made that the Bucs wanted the wide receiver to commit suicide.
“These guys at the Tampa Bay Bucs tried to make an agreement with me to give me $200,000 to go to the crazy house so these guys could look like they know what they’re talking about,” Brown said. “These guys are unprofessional, they treated me wrong.”
According to Burstyn, the Bucs offered Brown $200,000 in exchange for Brown being placed on some sort of list.’ “The general manager [Jason Licht] clearly told us in writing, ‘don’t spin this any other way.'”
“To the extent, any of that is coming from the spin that Antonio had a spontaneous mental episode– it’s resentful, it’s hurtful and it’s a disservice to people who do suffer from mental health challenges,” Burstyn said.
Brown then chimed in with his thoughts on the Buccaneers’ offer, which he described as a PR stunt designed to make the Buccaneers look good. Gumbel then questioned if Brown thought he needed any form of professional mental care.
Brown admitted that he is sometimes misunderstood, but that it isn’t everyone’s responsibility to try to comprehend or interpret his behavior.
“I have mental wealth. I know a lot of people may not understand me or how I look at things or how I react emotionally to things, but it’s not for them to understand me,” Brown said.