Getty Antonio Brown celebrates a touchdown.
NFL teams have had little to no interest in Antonio “AB” Brown since making headlines with his dramatic exit during the Tampa Bay Buccanneers-New York Jets game in January.
Mayweather joined The Pivot Podcast and New York Yankees legend Alex Rodriguez for a roundtable on athletes and business. Since retiring from the ring, Mayweather’s business has been as a promoter, so he took the opportunity to advocate for the former Pittsburgh Steelers star who remains a free agent.
“AB, he’s still young, so I feel like, AB, he’s got a lot left in football; at least four more years,” Mayweather said. “Super fast, he works out on the regular.”
Mayweather wants teams to know that not only is his friend still in football shape, but he’s also betting on Brown behaving himself wherever he might wind up.
“I think AB is really misunderstood and he just wanna be treated fair,” Mayweather said on The Pivot on April 8. “This is for any team that’s watching right now: We’ll make them a deal. If they sign AB and AB go through the whole season, no problems at all, they gotta give us $20 million. But if he mess up, we gotta give them $20 million. If any team wanna match that, y’know, reach out to us.”
Since being dropped by the Bucs on January 6, Brown, 33, has been flanked by celebrity athletes like Mayweather and the two appear to have a budding relationship.
“AB was shocked at how fast I was,” Mayweather said, discussing his relationship with Brown. “I’m fast as any other receiver at my age because I took care of my body, and I push him to be better. I push him to be great. What we talk about is real.”
No doubt plenty of friends and family have pushed Brown to “be better” in the past and it hasn’t stuck from a professional behavior standpoint.
How many more chances will the NFL give Antonio Brown?
N-O to AB
Though wide receiver is a position of need for the Pittsburgh Steelers, you won’t find them sniffing around Antonio Brown. Head coach Mike Tomlin has been there, done that, and is more than glad for Brown to be another team’s headache in the future.
The Steelers lost more than half of their wide receiver room in free agency. Longtime vet JuJu Smith-Schuster went to Kansas City, James Washington to the Cowboys and Ray-Ray McCloud signed with the San Fransisco 49ers.
There’s no question that Brown is one of the hardest-working receivers to ever play the game, with production to match.
But the question since he went off the rails in Pittsburgh and was traded to the then-Oakland Raiders has been: Is Brown’s talent worth the baggage that comes with it?
Mere weeks after Brown’s outrageous display at MetLife Stadium, Brown went on the I AM ATHLETE podcast to declare his desire to play for the Ravens and Lamar Jackson.
Since then, Brown has been hinting at signing with the Cleveland Browns. It’s likely a pipedream for Brown as it’s hard to imagine Cleveland taking on more baggage than they already are with Deshaun Watson.
Cleveland Antonio Browns
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