The Antonio Brown era with the Las Vegas Raiders did not last very long. The Raiders trade a third and fifth-round draft pick to the Pittsburgh Steelers for the star wide receiver back in 2019, but things did not go well, and Brown would never take the field in a Raiders uniform.
There were numerous issues with Brown including missing practices because of burns on his feet caused by not wearing proper footwear during cryotherapy. He also threatened to retire due to no longer being allowed to wear his preferred helmet as well as explosive run-ins with then-Raiders GM Mike Mayock.
He would eventually demand his release after the Raiders voided the guaranteed money from his contract and the team would cut Brown before his salary became guaranteed. But in a recent appearance on the It Needed to Be Said podcast with Tyreek Hill, Brown offered up a slightly different story on what happened via Mike Florio of Yahoo Sports:
“Mark Davis stood up on a limb for me,” Brown said about his exit from the team that at the time was still in Oakland. “As a honorable man, I told him, ‘Like, yo, I don’t want to be a Raider.’ Save him his money. . . . I handle business respectably.”
“It saved him money,” Brown said. “If I get on the roster the first opening day of the game, he owe me $30 million. He made a deal to let me go, but no one ever knew that.”
The receiver would continue on with his story, saying that he didn’t want to ‘hustle’ owner Mark Davis and the Raiders:
“So I got to the Raiders, and I’m like, ‘Yo, Mark, I love everything about it here. I love money, but it’s not championship culture, it’s not the environment I want to be in. I love you, I appreciate the $30 million, but I already got 30. Not to be arrogant, but I got it. I don’t need to hustle you.’”
History seems to show that Brown is flat-out wrong with his version of events. His guaranteed money was voided before there were any talks about releasing him and it was that move by the Raiders that caused Brown to ask for his release in the first place.
Additionally, Brown would file a grievance against the Raiders in order to try and get that $30 million he felt he was owed, which isn’t exactly the move of someone who didn’t feel he needed the money and was doing the Raiders a favor.
Antonio Brown may want to remember things the way he sees them in his head, but the facts tell a completely different story.
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