Bruce Arians Cut Antonio Brown During Third Quarter vs. Jets
Naturally, there's a ton of room to speculate when it comes to what happened between the Buccaneers and Antonio Brown on Sunday. It's a wild situation that has been hard to pin down in terms of what happened to create such a scene.
Fortunately, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport provided closure on the situation Monday morning during a segment on Good Morning Football. Per Rapoport, Brown felt as if his ankle was injured enough to the point where he couldn't play in the game. And according to Brown, Bruce Arians and the offensive staff believed he was healthy. Therefore, they wanted him to go in and play.
When Brown told the offensive coaches that he wasn't playing, Bruce Arians essentially told him that if he wasn't going to play when Arians and Co. told him to then he couldn't be on the sideline and proceeded to cut him.
Check out Rapoport's full report for the entire context below:
To Brown's credit, assistant head coach Harold Goodwin did tell reporters on Friday that Brown "tweaked" his ankle and that's why he missed practice on Thursday and Friday. Also, there were other reports stating the Bucs had doubts about Brown's availability, but he improved enough on Saturday to the point where those doubts were erased.
It's worth noting that the staff's uneasiness toward Brown's ability, but it also works against Brown when considering he disproved the doubts on Saturday. This is obviously speculation, but Saturday's improvement could also be why Arians and Co. wanted Brown back in the game as much as they did. They had that much confidence in his ankle after Saturday.
There's also Brown's postgame comments when asked about his confidence in playing a bunch of snaps during the Bucs' Week 16 win against the Panthers.
“That’s what I do man, it’s my job," said Brown. "This is what I’m on the team for.”
Brown played 53 snaps -good for 79% of total offensive snaps- in that game after returning from his initial ankle injury and three-game suspension. If he was that adamant about handling a large amount playing time when not at 100%, what caused him to change his mind in seven days?
And then there's this clip from the game that shows what appears to be a rather healthy-looking Brown schooling a Jets defensive back:
And then of course, he looked rather healthy as he jogged and jumped off the field en route to the locker room.
But no matter what caused the Sunday scene, it sounds like things really hit a head between Arians and Brown on Sunday. It just makes the Bucs' comeback win that more special and impressive.
And based off AB's claims, it sounds like this drama is far from over. AB could very well file a grievance based off this story and win some (if not all) the remaining salary he's about to miss out on due to his release.
We'll see if that happens. For now, though, all the Bucs care about is winning the rest of their games.
UPDATE: Bruce Arians came out and denied any conversation between he and Brown surrounding the receiver's ankle when Arians spoke with reporters Monday afternoon. It's clear that there are two different sides to this story and it was also cleared up that Arians did not state anything about Brown's dissolution with the team until after the game.
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