Buccaneers Issue Statement On Antonio Brown’s Release, Allegations

It’s (finally) official: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have released Antonio Brown.

The Bucs on Thursday issued a statement regarding Brown, who ripped off his pads and exited the field shirtless during Sunday’s game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.

Here’s the full statement from the team:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have terminated the contract of Antonio Brown, effective immediately. While Antonio did receive treatment on his ankle and was listed on the injury report the week leading up to last Sunday’s game, he was cleared to play by our medical team prior to the start of the game and at no point during the game did he indicate to our medical personnel that he could not play. We have attempted, multiple times throughout this week, to schedule an evaluation by an outside orthopedic specialist, yet Antonio has not complied. Maintaining the health and wellness of our players is of the utmost importance to our organization.

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Brown claimed in the aftermath of Sunday’s meltdown that Bucs head coach Bruce Arians tried to force him to play through an ankle injury. The wide receiver issued a lengthy statement Wednesday, before then revealing text messages that him and Arians allegedly exchanged leading up to Sunday’s game.

The 33-year-old Brown also shared screenshots of an exchange he allegedly had with Tom Brady’s trainer, Alex Guerrero, although he later clarified Brady and his other Bucs teammates were “good” to him. Instead, Brown’s beef resides with the Bucs organization, which clearly did its best Thursday to dispute AB’s claims.