Getty Antonio Brown has a message for Tom Brady.
Antonio Brown continues to call out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and this time even newly-retired legend Tom Brady. Brown posted an MRI photo of his ankle to his Instagram Story on February 21 with an accompanied rant about the Buccaneers, Brady and head coach Bruce Arians before deleting the message hours later.
“They tried to hurt me intentionally @buccaneers,” Brown said in the caption over the photo. “Sent me out there after knowing I was still hurt. Tom said he would throw it it if I came to play hurt I came. He didn’t throw it imagine being hurt having to play through this and being lied too [sic]. Coach said if I couldn’t run on this get the f*** out of here. F*** all you MF. Still caint [sic] stop me @nfl.”
Brown has maintained that the sideline altercation with Arians was over his injury, while several Tampa Bay players and staff noted that the receiver was upset about targets. The playmaker even alluded to this in his now-deleted message noting that Brady “didn’t throw it” despite his decision to play through the injury.
Here is a look at the screenshot of the now-deleted Instagram message, courtesy of The Athletic’s Greg Auman.
Seven weeks after he left Bucs mid game, Antonio Brown posts this with an x-ray of his ankle today on Instagram. He had five targets in first half of the Jets game, one off the team high.
ALL the latest Bucs news straight to your inbox! Join the Heavy on Bucs newsletter here!
The MRI Photo Brown Posted Was From October 2021
Auman pointed out that the MRI photo Brown briefly posted was from October 2021. The sideline incident which led to Brown’s release took place during the Bucs-Jets game on January 2, 2022.
“A few things, as you guys have pointed out here: it’s an MRI and not an x-ray, and it’s dated from October, when he originally sustained the injury and not anything more recent,” Auman tweeted on February 21. “Brown has since deleted this post.”
Evans on A.B.: ‘He Was Saying He Wanted the Rock’
“I just didn’t want him to go out like that, so I’m telling him, ‘Please don’t go out like this.'”
@MattHarmon_BYB recently caught up with Mike Evans to talk about Antonio Brown’s abrupt in-game exit from the Bucs and more.
Full interview ➡️ t.co/JSVY6kLKjW
Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans made some revealing comments about Brown’s outburst as the Tampa Bay star was one of the players trying to calm down the wideout one the sideline. Evans revealed that Brown was on a “pitch count” as a result of the ankle injury and also confirmed that the receiver was upset about his lack of targets.
“What I remember is we were trying to get him to come back in the game,” Evans detailed during a February 19 interview with Yahoo Sports’ Matt Harmon. “He was saying he wanted the rock, and I mean, rightfully so. We should have gotten the rock, he’s an unbelievable player. [I’m] like, ‘Yo, come in the game A.B..’ So we’re asking him to come in the game, we’re on offense. I’m like, ‘A.B., big bro, come on, let’s go in the game.’ They’re calling for us because me and him are both on the pitch count, because we’re both coming back from injury, and so I’m trying to get him to come in the game, and he doesn’t come, so I go back on the drive.
“I do my two plays, I come out and then I see B.A. [Bruce Arians] still trying to get him to come in the game, and they had like a falling out somehow. And A.B. goes off, and he’s about to take his pads off, and I’m trying to grab his pads and tell him like, ‘Yo, big bro.’ Cause me and him have a relationship, and I don’t want him to go out like this.
“Like, we obviously need him, so I’m telling you, ‘Big bro, we need you. The season’s almost over, if you don’t want to be here then next year you can leave.’ You know what I’m saying, like obviously I just didn’t want him to go out like that.”