Stephen A. Smith is not happy with Antonio Brown.
Whether the ESPN personality has a right to be upset is for you to decide, however.
Brown signed with the New England Patriots on Saturday mere hours after his release from the Oakland Raiders. The move irked many, as Brown’s selfish, reckless behavior with the Raiders has made him one of the most hated players in the NFL.
During Monday morning’s “First Take” episode, Smith took the criticism of Brown to a deeper level.
“Antonio Brown has lied. He has played teammates and organizations,” Smith said. “He’s acted like a clown. He’s embarrassed his organization, himself. He’s thrown brothers under the bus — Mike Tomlin, our very own Ryan Clark, JuJu Smith-Schuster. … This man has exhibited and displayed a level of selfishness to the likes of which most of us haven’t seen. I don’t ever want to hear (Terrell Owens’) name mentioned again in this breath. I don’t ever wanna hear Randy Moss’ name mentioned, not like this. … I’ve never seen anything like it. He should be ashamed of himself.”
Added Smith: “I understand that, as black men, we have experiences that other people don’t have, and we express our points of view — whatever. But understand why: Because you’ve got people on the come-up that are gonna be looking to emulate that, and they will never get away with what he got away with. And usually, those of us that are in a privileged position, understand it. And we’re sensible enough and selfless enough to make sure that we don’t sully the pathway for others on the come-up. We guard it with our very lives and our very careers so we can make sure that we don’t do damage to those who will follow us.
“Antonio Brown didn’t care. I don’t give a damn about him being with the Patriots or whatever. What I care about is the nonsense he engaged in to get to this point. It’s disgraceful, I’m ashamed of this brother. That’s all I want to say.”
We’ll just let those comments speak for themselves.
Brown and the Patriots reportedly will finalize a contract sometime Monday. He’s on track to make his team debut next Sunday when New England visits the Miami Dolphins.
