Former NFL star Antonio Brown attacked Tom Brady on Twitter last week, making the Buccaneers quarterback the latest in a long string of targets Brown has criticized since his unceremonious exit from the team last season. Trainer Alex Guerrero was also mentioned in another tweet that has since been deleted.
Since partially disrobing and leaving the field during a game against the New York Jets last season, Brown has reignited public concerns about his mental health in a series of increasingly alarming messages online.
His tirade against Brady is particularly suspect, as Brown would not have gotten a second chance in the NFL if not for the quarterback’s vocal support within the team and with the press at the time of his signing.
This is the primary issue with Brown’s conduct; there doesn’t seem to be a sensible approach to any of it. Following a litany of misconduct violations, suspensions, sexual assault investigations, altercations with teammates, excessive absences as a member of the Raiders, multiple retirement announcements, an ill-fated career in music and a friendship with fellow troubled star Kanye West, Brown’s story is as upsetting to summarize as it is bewildering and condemning.
Messages on social media that were once bizarre now sound like white noise as his antics, sometimes harmlessly odd but other times damaging in nature, become the norm for a clearly troubled individual.
When he was the best receiver in the NFL, sexual assault allegations were shocking because football fans knew little more than what they saw on the field. Now, barely coherent attacks against Brady and others on social media merely confirm what is already understood.
Many people, including Brady, have expressed support for Brown while calling for the former player to receive help.
But though Brown was once forced to attend anger management courses and a psychiatric evaluation after assaulting a moving truck driver in Florida, it’s difficult to observe any improvement in Brown’s behavior since the extent of his conduct was made public several years ago.
While some view Brown as a threat while others consider him little more than a meme, an image he only exacerbated in a disastrous Rolling Loud performance last month, the problem is that Brown shows no signs of improving and maintains a massive platform to advertise his aggressive and sometimes violent mindset. Brown has 10.8 million followers on Instagram alone and another 1.8 million on Twitter.
At this point, it’s highly doubtful that Brown’s years-long tirade will end with online criticism of Brady and a Bucs trainer on Twitter. His conduct in the past has been more outrageous and abhorrent and is likely going to escalate again in the future.
Though most punishments for his behavior thus far have been minimal, the fear of more severe punishment will not dissuade him and may not even occur to him. In a perverse way, through clicks, airtime and yes, lines in print, the reward of attention may prevent him from ever comprehending the extent of the damage he’s inflicting — on himself and others.
