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Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown made headlines for all of the wrong reasons in Week 17.
As the Buccaneers were trailing the New York Jets towards the end of the third quarter, Brown did the unthinkable — he walked out on his team in the middle of the game. Cameras caught the veteran receiver taking off his shoulder pads, placing it down on the sideline and then proceeding to walk into the tunnel.
While it’s clear that Brown walked out for a reason, head coach Bruce Arians explained to Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer why that occurred.
“Just talked to Bruce Arians who said he was trying to get AB to go into game & AB refused. Tried again Brown refused & Arians told him to get out. On if he saw AB take his jersey off.
‘Yeah, I did. Never seen anything like it in all my years,'” said Arians.
The Brown debacle puts an unhappy ending to what was a productive one-year stint with Tampa Bay. Brown helped lead the Buccaneers to a victory in Super Bowl LV after signing with the team midway through the season. Despite missing over a year of football, the 33-year-old receiver didn’t appear to miss a beat. In 14 games and seven starts, Brown racked up 84 catches for 1,002 yards and eight touchdowns.
However, his latest actions will likely make people remember his walkout incident over his individual and team success in Tampa Bay.
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Brown Arrived Home Via Private Jet
If you’re wondering exactly how Brown was able to get home — remember, the Bucs were playing an away game — it was via police escort and then private jet.
That’s not a joke.
Fox Sports’ Chris Myers reported shortly after the incident that Brown departed the stadium in that very fashion.
“Security said Antonio Brown ran out of stadium shirtless &!into a police car to be escorted to flight by himself out of town away from the buccaneers,” said Myers. “This after he tore off his jersey during game threw his shirt in the stands freaking out.”
Making matters even more bizarre is that Brown had asked state troopers to take him on a ride to the airport. Outside of being denied that request, MetLife security nearly jumped Brown due to thinking he was a fan that jumped onto the field.
Via Jenna Laine of ESPN:
“We thought he was a jumper. He was shirtless and didn’t have his wallet,” the security officer said.
Arians Announces End of Antonio Brown Era
To lead off his postgame press conference, Arians didn’t take any time in announcing that the Bucs are moving on from the AB era.
“He is no longer a Buc,” Arians said after the Buccaneers’ 28-24 win over the Jets. “That’s the end of the story. Let’s talk about the guys that went out there and won the game.”
The incident — and decision — comes less than two weeks after Arians made the decision to retain Brown despite his three-game suspension from the NFL. Brown had been suspended due to misrepresenting his vaccination status to the league.
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