What did former Buccaneers WR Antonio Brown say about his controversial exit from the field in 2022?

Seemingly best friends with controversy, the one-time star wide receiver recently spoke on his now infamous episode last year. To be fair, we’ve now got all three sides of the story: What the Bucs said, what we saw on television, and last but not least, Antonio Brown’s take on it all.

Remember that Bucs vs Jets game? Antonio Brown does

Let us set the scene for you. It was January of 2022 and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were down 24-10 in the third quarter of a game against the New York Jets. Then without warning, we saw then-Bucs wide receiver Antonio Brown take off his jersey on the sideline before proceeding to run across the field - during play - prance in front of fans, and then sprint down the tunnel to the locker room. As you can imagine both those watching in the stadium and at home or in bars on TV, were left stunned.

In the days that followed, we were bombarded with a number of reports about the incident, not the least of which was Brown’s official release from the team almost immediately after the game. Of course, it wasn’t long before Brown pushed back, claiming that he told head coach Bruce Arians that he was suffering from an injury and therefore could not enter the game, to which Arians allegedly responded “get out.” Brown would go on to give a number of interviews in which he made rather unsavory comments about former teammate Tom Brady, the Buccaneers, and several others as well. Fast forward to the present, and Brown has once again revisited the episode in an apparent attempt to give more insight as to what happened that day.

What did Antonio Brown say about the Buccaneers incident?

Speaking during a recent appearance on the podcast of Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill, Brown gave his version of events. “Tom [Brady] called me like ‘Yo this week man the Jets man, they sweet man imma hit you with like 10 to 12 [targets],’” Brown said. “So, he gonna gas me up so you know me, that’s all I need to hear like yo you gonna throw me the ball, this is like me saying like I got a new crib like you know me, you know what I’m saying.” What we can assume here is that Brown’s decision to play through his injury was based on the idea that Brady was going to favor him in terms of targets.

*be advised the clip below contains abusive language*

“We (were) about to play the Jets and I am already hurt,” he said. “So I took pictures to send to the coach and told him ‘Look, If we’re going to win the Super Bowl I’m going to need to take these last two weeks to recover up so I can give you my best when we go to win the Super Bowl,’ but the coach called me saying that I wasn’t resting. So then Tom (Brady) called me and told me he’d hit me with 10-12 (passes), so he gassed me up, and that’s all I needed to hear. But you know as a player, if you f---ing up but your team needs you then you just suck it up for the game and for the team. I already know they were being fake to me the whole time I was there. I got suspended (for breaking Covid-19 rules) and I came back and they had some guys hurt, so they wanted to get everything out of me - they treated me like I’m a dog.” Brown then explained that once he realized he wasn’t targeted in the manner Brady said beforehand, he took the decision to not go back on the field. “You don’t want to throw me the ball and you making me like I’m crazy, so, I was like, ‘I’m crazy, f--- all you motherf---ers, I’m out of here.’” Brown said.

If you’ve been following this scenario since it occurred last year, then one could say we’ve now got all sides of the story. As for which one is accurate, we’ll let you be the judge.