Student journalist Hannah Robbins covers the ex-NFL player and current college student’s unraveling.
Antonio Brown has had a whirlwind of a week. Before Sunday night football began, Brown had already become the most eventful news of the day.
In a series of tweets, he first proclaimed that he would never play with the NFL again.
Then, he blasted the league for hypocrisy when former teammate Ben Roethlisberger only received a four game suspension for sexual misconduct allegations in 2010.
He also cited Patriots owner Robert Kraft was also facing allegations of sexual misconduct when Brown was fired from the team.
Within several hours, all but his promise to stop playing for the NFL were deleted from Twitter, but that was only the beginning of Brown’s eventful week.
Later that day, Brown also retweeted a tweet stating that Sports Illustrated reporter Robert Klemko received death threats after reporting Brown’s threatening text messages to one of his accusers with the response “[the] system working effectively.” This was also subsequently deleted.
On Monday, Brown posted his course schedule at Central Michigan University for the semester. According to sources at CMU, Brown registered for classes at his alma mater to finish his degree on Sept. 16 before he was cut from the Patriots but after the allegations, he seems ready to begin his four course semester. For anyone assuming Brown was angling to get back on the field at the college level, don’t worry. Since he went professional, he cannot return to NCAA football.
But that was not all that was new with Brown this week. After stewing on his decision to quit the NFL, Brown tweeted on Thursday that “the game needs me I’m like test answers” stating he was going for the “Big 4X” or a fourth team this season. However, some teams are concerned that these tweets show his instability, and there is uncertainty if he will be able to find another team to sign him.
Brown’s legal drama also continued this week. After quickly being cut from the Raiders and the Patriots in succession, Brown wants his guaranteed money. From the Raiders, he wants approximately $30 million that he lost for his signing bonus and base pay for 2019 and 2020 games. This pay is regardless of the fact that Brown never played a single game for the Raiders.
From the Patriots, Brown is after 31 million for a signing bonus, wages for several games this year and some money for his 2020 option. However, according to news that broke Sunday morning, however, it soon became clear that the dispute might not be brokered before 2020. The Patriots plan to argue that Brown did not make the rape allegations against himself clear enough to the Patriots at the time of signing, and this battle will play out in NFL arbitration.
To cap off the week, Brown tweeted Sunday morning asking for someone to help him “prof read” his English paper “do” at midnight, showing that Brown is still planning on attending his classes. With tweets like that, however, it remains to be seen if he’ll get his A’s and B’s he was hoping for this semester.
