Mercurial receiver Antonio Brown is reportedly headed to the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, hours after he was cut by the Oakland Raiders before he could make his debut with the NFL stragglers.
Brown posted a photo of himself grinning in a Patriots uniform on Twitter as US media, including NFL.com, reported he had agreed to a one-year, $15 million deal with New England.
Brown won’t be eligible to play in the Pats’ season-opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday because he wasn’t on their roster in time after a soap-opera on Saturday saw him cut, finally, by the Raiders.
The Patriots, led by superstar quarterback Tom Brady, were apparently undaunted by Brown’s troubles with his last two teams.
Upon being released – as he demanded – from the Raiders Brown posted on Twitter on Saturday: “The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.”
The saga of the talented wide receiver has riveted the NFL through training camps, the tension between Brown and the Raiders ratcheting up this week as the league launched its centenary season.
After Brown, irked at being fined for missing training camp activities, faced off in a heated altercation with general manager Mike Mayock, the Raiders thought they had smoothed things over.
On Friday, Raiders coach Jon Gruden said Brown had apologised and he still expected Brown to start Monday’s game against the Denver Broncos.
But after Brown again took to social media to air his discontent on Saturday – demanding in an Instagram post that the team “release me” the Raiders did just that.
‘New beginning’
Gruden had come in for criticism for failing to back Mayock, but the coach said on Saturday he was only sorry to see Brown go.
“We tried every way possible to make it work,” Gruden said in a press conference at the team’s practice facility. “I’m sorry it didn’t. I wish Antonio nothing but the best.”
Brown arrived in Oakland in an off-season trade after an acrimonious end to his tenure with the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he feuded with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and was benched for the final game of last season.
The Raiders snapped him up with a three-year deal worth a reported $54.1 million.
The 31-year-old seven-time Pro-Bowler was forced to miss two weeks of training camp in August after reporting for duty with frostbite on his feet, which he blamed on a cryotherapy mishap.
He vented angrily against the NFL over new safety regulations forcing players to switch to a new type of helmet.
The Raiders had welcomed Brown back into the fold on Friday, after he apologised for the dust-up with Mayock.
But after he was fined for conduct detrimental to the team, a sanction that would have cost him $30 million in guaranteed salary, Brown said he wanted out.
“I have worked my whole life to prove that the system is blind to see talent like mines [sic],” Brown wrote on Instagram.
“Now that everyone sees it, they want me to conform to that same system that has failed me all those years. I’m not mad at anyone. I’m just asking for the freedom to prove them all wrong. Release me @raiders. #NOMore”
Brown’s agent Drew Rosenhaus soon said that the player was “looking forward to a new beginning” and the Patriots could certainly be the team to supply that.
New England have a history of betting on star talent that has run afoul of other teams. This year their roster features wide receiver Josh Gordon, who was reinstated from indefinite suspension under the league’s substance abuse policy in August.
Gordon and Brown now have a chance to prove themselves – alongside stalwart receivers Julian Edelman and Demaryius Thomas – as targets for one of the all-time greats in Brady.