(Video contains explicit language)
A lot has changed in Trent Brown’s life over the past year. About 11 months ago, the 49ers drafted his successor, Mike McGlinchey, with the No. 9 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. The next day, the 49ers traded Brown and a fifth-round pick to the Patriots for a third-rounder, which the 49ers used on Tarvarius Moore, a safety-converted-cornerback who played sparingly as a rookie.
Brown starred as New England’s starting right tackle in 2018. His lone season there ended in a Super Bowl win. In the opening days of free agency earlier this month, the Raiders signed Brown to a four-year, $66-million deal, the richest contract for an offensive lineman in NFL history.
Brown’s fallout with the 49ers was traced to an apparent lack of work ethic. Brown suffered a shoulder injury 10 games into the 2017 season, and he chose to sit out the rest of the year, rather than play through it.
Brown appeared on Bleacher Report’s The Lefkoe Show Monday. Among the topics discussed was his exit with the 49ers.
“People feel like, I’ll just put it like this; sometimes, business becomes personal,” Brown said. “I don’t know why, probably because I chose to not play the rest of the season. I chose to have shoulder surgery. Dr. (James) Andrews recommended it. He was like, ‘You got to have surgery. You are risking your career if you don’t.’”
“You mean the season that you couldn’t make the playoffs, anyway?” Lefkoe said.
“Playing for pride,” Brown said. “It is what it is.”