How many second chances should he get?

As I’m writing this, I am almost exactly 24 hours since Adam Schefter tweeted what I had been dreading: Antonio Brown (AB) has signed with the New England Patriots. This coming less than a day after he publicly requested a trade from the Raiders on his Instagram. Well, they complied, and now this: Antonio Brown is a Patriot.

This whole pre-season has basically been the Antonio Brown Show. Sure, strange behavior is absolutely nothing new for Brown, but this situation is ridiculous. The ridiculousness began with AB getting frostbite from a cryotherapy machine. This ‘event’ took over my timeline. 

The beginning of the end came for Brown on the Oakland Raiders came with the whole helmet fiasco, wherein Brown was fined multiple times for refusing to wear the NFL sanctioned helmet. Which by the way, got old so fast. It was funny for the first day or two but after a week I was so sick of talking and hearing about Antonio Brown’s helmet I wanted to scream. 

Of course, AB was then fined for missing two practices. Then, if this public relations situation wasn’t bad enough for the Raiders, it was reported that Brown got into an argument with Raiders’ general manager, Mike Mayock and even more chaos and fines ensued after that. I cannot imagine the stress level of the Raiders during this time, and for those who know me, it takes a lot for me to sympathize with the Oakland Raiders.

Of course, there is so much more history and substance to this whole story and AB’s career but what I want to say here is this: Brown’s behavior is totally unacceptable and unprofessional. I don’t adhere to the notion that all professional athletes have to be role models or perfect people, but seriously? To act like this and then be traded to arguably the best team in the NFL is laughable.

To me, it seems incredibly unfair how much talent he has. So many kids in high school and college would kill to have the skills that Brown has, and probably would be grateful just to play in the NFL. Not to mention have the money Brown makes. If I had a job that paid me millions of dollars to do what I love, no chance I risk losing that. I would do anything to be in that situation. 

It’s setting a bad example, showing to kids that as long as you have talent, you can basically do whatever you want and you’ll end up fine because, hey… you’re talented. I understand this is not the case every single time (Colin Kaepernick anyone?), but this has been so publicized that it’s impossible to ignore.

I don’t adhere to the notion that all professional athletes have to be role models or perfect people, but seriously? To act like this and then be traded to arguably the best team in the NFL is laughable.

I don’t blame Bill Belichick or the Patriots organization, by the way. After all, Antonio Brown is an incredible wide receiver and I’d be happy to have his talent on my team. If he got traded to the Vikings, this would be a totally different article because I hate the Pats and love the Vikings.

 I. Am. Biased. 

It’s the principle of the thing that bothers me. Here’s my problem: Antonio Brown acts the way he did, says the things he did, and then gets traded to the reigning Super Bowl champions. It’s sad, and to me as a lifelong Patriots hater, it sucks even more watching them just get better even after losing Rob Gronkowski.

Here’s the silver lining: this is now over. Will we probably hear some more AB drama? Yes of course. However, it’s time to kick back, relax, and enjoy our Sundays again (unless you’re a Steelers fan, in which case, I’m just really sorry). Let’s leave this disaster of a situation in the past and focus on the season and supporting our teams. 

Hopefully, I don’t write another article mentioning Brown again until the Patriots inevitably win the Super Bowl again this year. Because, of course they will.