Antonio Brown is done in New England, that much is clear. But is there a chance the superstar wideout is finished in the NFL as a whole?
The AB experiment in Foxboro ultimately lasted a mere 11 days, as the Patriots on Friday cut ties with the troubled receiver. New England initially seemed like an ideal spot for Brown to reshape his image, but as off-field issues continued to pile up, the franchise evidently deemed the seven-time Pro Bowl selection not worth the hassle.
So, where does Brown go from here? His agent, Drew Rosenhaus, noted shortly after Brown’s release that his client was looking forward to the next opportunity. ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, however, isn’t sure AB ever will receive that opportunity.
“I don’t really know if there are teams that are interested, quite honestly,” Riddick said Sunday on “SportsCenter. “I mean, I understand what Drew Rosenhaus is saying, but I’ll just say this: Right now, is the risk really worth the reward at this point? The No. 1 team that figures, ‘You know what? I’ll take the risk because people buy into our culture and we know maybe we can get the reward’ — the No. 1 team at doing that cut the cord on him. So now what? You tell me another team that has the cachet of Bill Belichick that can say, ‘I can fix anybody.’ There’s no other team that feels that way about themselves and their program the same way Bill feels about his program because it’s been tried and true. And he cut the cord. So you tell me why any other team would think, ‘Oh, I can do it.'”
There’s also a chance Brown is prepared to move on from the NFL. The 31-year-old on Sunday set social media ablaze with a series of since-deleted tweets, one of which claimed he was done playing in the league out of frustration with owners. But Brown, quite frankly, is an unhinged individual, so we probably should take anything he says with a grain of salt.
As for the Patriots, it was business as usual in their first game following Brown’s release. New England improved to 3-0 on the season Sunday with a 30-14 win over the New York Jets at Gillette Stadium.
