© Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
There is no adequate single word to describe just how bizarre, calamitous and ultimately sad the last year of Antonio Brown’s life has been to observe.
He torpedoed his own career despite working his way out of Pittsburgh and receiving a three-year, up-to $50.13 million deal with $30.13 million in guarantees with the Raiders, which he managed to get voided through a variety of insane steps, largely revolving around skipping practice on the premise that he didn’t like his helmet, but clearly coming from somewhere else. Throughout that disaster of a training camp, he was also dealing with severe frostbite on his feet due to an incident in a cryotherapy chamber in France which he failed to wear proper footwear.
He was eventually cut by the Raiders and signed a one-year $15 million deal with the Patriots, which included about $9 million in guarantees, which, again, was mostly voided after he played in New England for just one week.
Here’s a fairly comprehensive timeline of Brown’s last year, in which he was traded, signed a massive deal, got frostbite, refused to wear a new helmet, got in a screaming match with Raiders GM Mike Mayock after posting a letter from Mayock on Instagram, announced a new helmet deal with Xenith that same day, was nearly suspended by the Raiders, apologized, posted a now infamous phone call recording from head coach Jon Gruden, fined more than $215,000, at which point he asked for his release which was granted later that day, then that same day signed a one-year deal with the Patriots, then was accused of three incidents of sexual assault the following day by his former trainer, Britney Taylor, lost his deal with Xenith, played his lone game with New England, was dropped from Nike, and was released from the Patriots.
After all that, Brown began filming, let’s say, peculiar music videos, along with sometimes questionable tweets and was eventually arrested on charges of burglary with battery, burglary of an unoccupied conveyance, and criminal mischief in January, after he and his trainer allegedly assaulted a moving truck driver at Brown’s home in Florida.
That brings us to Thursday, when Brown pleaded no contest to a felony burglary with battery charge and the two following, lesser misdemeanor charges, according to ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe. According to Wolfe, Brown will avoid jail time, but will have to serve 100 hours of community service, attend a 13-week anger management program, undergo a mandatory psychiatric evaluation and be on probation for two years.
