New Details On Why Buccaneers Waited So Long To Release Antonio Brown

There’s obviously a lot more to the Antonio Brown saga than his sideline blowup during the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Week 17 win over the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.

The issues reportedly started last week with a contract dispute, continued at halftime when the wideout was unhappy about the number of targets he’d received and then really spiraled after his third-quarter meltdown, with Brown issuing a lengthy statement and going scorched earth on social media.

Brown, who accused Bucs head coach Bruce Arians of trying to force him to play through an ankle injury and called out Tom Brady’s longtime trainer, Alex Guerrero, shared screenshots of text messages. He also attended a Brooklyn Nets vs. Memphis Grizzlies game at Barclays Center, responded to Cameo requests and promoted his music career in the aftermath of Sunday’s shirtless meltdown. It’s been a wild week that culminated Thursday with the Bucs (finally) officially releasing Brown.

So, what took so long for Tampa Bay to cut ties with AB? After all, Arians declared immediately after Sunday’s game that Brown was “no longer a Buc.”

Well, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the Buccaneers wanted Brown to seek mental help, an overture the 33-year-old receiver denied.

“From what I understand, the Bucs wanted him to get help. They wanted him to seek mental help and therapy to better himself,” Rapoport said Friday on NFL Network. “He did not want to do that, thought it was ridiculous, just wanted to be released, didn’t want to stay caged, as he said on social media. And then until (Thursday), after he posted everybody’s text messages, he was released.”

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Of course, the conversation doesn’t end there. It’s fair to question whether the Bucs also wanted to do whatever was necessary to keep Brown from signing with another team. Just like it’s fair to question their handling of his injury or the contract snafu, which Bucs general manager Jason Licht said stemmed from Brown wanting the remaining incentives in his deal for this season to be guaranteed.

The Bucs welcomed Brown back after the league-imposed three-game suspension he served for misrepresenting his COVID-19 vaccination status. But the whole situation sure felt like a powder keg, even though it would have been impossible to predict the actual events of this past week.