Antonio Brown’s walk-off strip present was a weird however applicable ending to his Buccaneers tenure. Eradicating his jersey was the one approach to get the Bucs to see him for what he actually is.
For 2 years, the Bucs offered us the fallacy that athletic success is a reflection of character and that Brown’s efficiency meant he had made private progress. The 2 most vital individuals in the group, Tom Brady and Bruce Arians, each peddled that nonsense at occasions. The truth is that when the Bucs signed Brown, he was a nice soccer participant with a latest historical past of damaging and harmful habits. For all the time he performed for them, he was a nice soccer participant with a latest historical past of damaging and harmful habits. That’s not progress. The Bucs simply strengthened that, so long as he was a nice soccer participant, the latest historical past of damaging and harmful habits didn’t matter.
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Groups all through sports activities ought to take a onerous take a look at what occurred in Tampa. It’s a prime instance of what occurs when, consciously or subconsciously, groups view individuals by the prism of what they do on the sector. In 15 video games as a Buc, Brown caught 87 passes for 1,008 yards and eight touchdowns. That success added gasoline to the phantasm that Tampa Bay was proper about him. In reality, each catch simply pushed him nearer to an implosion, as a result of it tilted the dynamics of the connection. At first, Brown wanted the Bucs. The higher he performed, the extra he believed the Bucs wanted him.
Brown stopped being a nice soccer participant Sunday. That’s when Brady stated, “I feel all people ought to do what they’ll to assist him in ways in which he actually wants it.” That’s a beautiful sentiment, and Brady appeared real when he stated it. However Brady and the Bucs appeared to persuade themselves that taking part in soccer helped Brown, when it actually simply allowed him to ignore his critical issues. Positive, he had been accused of all types of misconduct. However he was nonetheless a productive soccer participant. The remainder was simply—Brown truly and repeatedly used this phrase—“drama.”
The Bucs received what they deserved for signing Brown. However in addition they received what they created. Second possibilities (and Brown was on his fourth) usually are not nearly second possibilities. The chance is just the start. Individuals want to be sincere about their failures and personal them each day till proudly owning them is important to their existence. The Bucs never actually tried that. As a substitute, in October 2020, Arians instructed NBC Sports activities’s Peter King, “He screws up one time, he’s gone,” concerning his new star, which sounded nice however was actually simply ridiculously shallow pondering. Brown has actual issues. Saying, “Don’t do this once more!” was no approach to assist him tackle them.
This yr, when Brown was suspended for 3 video games for procuring a pretend COVID-19 vaccine card, Arians was requested about that zero-tolerance coverage. His reply there was simply as weak.
“I may give a s— what [people] suppose,” Arians stated. “The one factor I care about is that this soccer group and what’s finest for us.”
This was a basic Pretend Powerful Man football-coach rant: cowardice cloaked in hubris. It was simply Arians’s approach of intimidating anyone who dare query him, and, by going that route, Arians implicitly dismissed the legitimacy of the questions.
There have been so many extra mature methods for him to reply. He may have stated the questions had been honest however he had modified his thoughts. He may have stated he believed in zero tolerance when Brown was signed however the extra he thought of it, the extra he realized he shouldn’t have taken such an absolutist stance. He may have stated that in his thoughts, acquiring a pretend vaccine card didn’t rise to the extent of dismissal, particularly since Brown did get vaccinated.
Arians did say, “Effectively, the historical past has modified since that assertion. A whole lot of issues went on final yr that I was very pleased with him.” However that received misplaced in his dismissal of critics, and anyway, Arians didn’t actually say what “went on final yr.”
I feel he meant that the Bucs received the Tremendous Bowl.
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That was all that actually occurred. There was never any indication that Brown had discovered from his transgressions. He didn’t publicly personal up to his errors. In January 2020, when he was nonetheless unsigned, he instructed ESPN, “I really feel like I never actually received in a battle with no girl. I simply really feel like I’m a goal so, anyone can come in opposition to me and say something [that] I’ve to face. There’s no help, there’s no egos, there’s no guidelines in it, anybody can come after me for something. No proof or no matter. ‘He stated, she’s saying.’ ” Given quite a few possibilities throughout his obligatory media availability earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, all Brown may muster was, “I’ve been by some issues, however that’s life.” He never detailed what he did, or apologized to many he wronged. He didn’t even appear to change his habits. He repeatedly dismissed anyone who questioned him by saying he simply needed to give attention to soccer. He did this time and time once more, most lately when he got here again from his suspension and dismissed reporters who simply needed to create “drama.”
It was searingly apparent that Brown noticed the sum of his transgressions not as errors he made, however as stuff that occurred to him. There was never any redemption story right here. This was not about private progress. It was a easy story of the Bucs squeezing appreciable manufacturing out of a man who had not modified.
And who needed that greater than anyone? Tom Brady.
Brady was the principle motive Brown was in the league in any respect. After Brady signed with the Bucs, Arians publicly dismissed the concept of Brown becoming a member of the group. However Brady needed him, and Brady received him.
Brady appears to genuinely consider that he is aware of higher methods for most individuals to stay, and he appeared to suppose he may assist Brown. However he, as a lot as anyone in soccer, enabled Antonio Brown. That’s certainly not how Brady noticed it on the time. But when he sits again and displays, and his love for Brown is honest, then hopefully he can see it now.
There are methods to assist troubled individuals reenter their chosen occupation. What the Bucs tried was a shortcut from the start. It labored on the sector, however solely on the sector.
That is most likely the top for Brown’s NFL profession. He performed on a stage worthy of the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame, however perhaps he ought to begin his personal museum as a substitute. On one wall, he can body the jersey he ripped off in the center of his group’s recreation Sunday. On one other, he can hold the outdated helmet he insisted on carrying with the Raiders. On a display screen, he can present his unauthorized Fb Reside stream from the Steelers’ locker room. He may body the stats he piled up, the payments he refused to pay and the lawsuits that had been filed in opposition to him, quotes from the ladies he mistreated, and executives from each NFL group can stroll inside and see who learns a rattling factor.
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