Antonio Brown’s brief tenure with the New England Patriots was a total disaster.
The All-Pro wide receiver lasted just 11 days with the organization as troubling off-the-field allegations emerged, and he’s now reportedly filing a grievance against the Patriots in an effort to collect close to $10 million. Meanwhile, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and virtually everyone else in the Patriots’ locker room have been forced to answer questions regarding Brown, who already had a controversial reputation upon arriving in New England thanks to his rocky departures from the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders.
Boomer Esiason, a former NFL quarterback-turned-analyst, isn’t ready to call the Brown signing a “mistake,” however, because there’s been no indication the Patriots were aware of the sexual assault and rape allegations that soon would surface. As far as the Patriots were concerned, they were rolling the dice on a beleaguered superstar in the hopes he’d walk the straight and narrow in Foxboro. Instead, things took a turn for the worse, ending with his release last Friday.
“It would have been a really big mistake had (Bill Belichick) known all the things that were going on behind the scenes,” Esiason said Monday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” per WEEI.com. “But, if you don’t know, then you are taking a chance on a guy and giving him an opportunity and he’s a great football player. I don’t necessarily know that it was a mistake. What is really amazing to me is how they could just sweep it aside and not even worry about it.”
Brown looked sharp in his only game with the Patriots, catching four passes for 56 yards with a touchdown in New England’s 43-0 win over the Miami Dolphins in Week 2. But the signing always seemed like a bit of a luxury — the Patriots have plenty of offensive weapons even without Brown — and New England hardly skipped a beat while dismantling the New York Jets 30-14 in Week 3.
“It is a self-destructive personality and attitude and the tweets and the public persona have gone from, ‘Yeah, he was a great player and so much fun to watch in Pittsburgh’ to now persona non grata. I think he’s radioactive. I don’t think we see him the rest of the year,” Esiason said, pointing to Brown’s weird social media outburst Sunday that involved a retirement of sorts. “I can’t imagine anybody taking a chance on him. I think there’s a fight to be had between the NFLPA and the NFL regarding some of the guaranteed money, but the language is pretty clear in these contracts. I can’t even believe I am still talking about AB this morning when there are plenty of other great stories out there in the NFL.”
Maybe at some point, the AB questions will end and everyone will focus more on how historically dominant the Patriots’ defense has been amid the team’s 3-0 start. For now, the drama continues.
