For the first time since the shirtless meltdown, Antonio Brown sat down for an interview. And, continuing the trend of his recent behavior, he gave us some juicy gossip to discuss.
Beside his lawyer, Sean Burstyn, the former Buccaneers receiver spoke with Bryant Gumbel on HBO’s Real Sports and dropped a few proverbial bombs: That coach Bruce Arians’ assertion that he wanted more targets at halftime is a “flat-out lie”; that the team’s medical staff knew about his ankle issue; and the team wanted him to play up the mental health treatment card for a nice payday.
“These guys at 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.
“The offer was Antonio would basically sit on the sidelines, go on some list and commit himself to some form of intensive mental health treatment,” Burstyn said. “And we were specifically told, in writing, by the general manager (Jason Licht), twice, ‘Don’t spin this any other way.’”
Gumbel interjected and asked Brown about his mental help.
“I have mental wealth, man,” Brown said. “I know a lot of people may not understand me or know how I look at things or don’t know how I react emotionally to things. But that’s not for them to understand me. I’ve got a beautiful family, kids, and people all across the world that look up to me. There’s no reason I’m in this position at this point.”
Potential litigation is also on the table.
“A whole lotta money. A whole lot,” Brown said. “It’s totally disrespect, man. Mental health is an important key in the world, so to drag people along and play on people’s mental health it’s unfair and unfortunate.”
