On Wednesday night, Antonio Brown released a statement through his agent that detailed his version of his controversial exit in the middle of a game, including the notable element that Bruce Arians did, in fact, know of his ankle injury prior to Week 17's game with the Jets.
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While Arians said that he "didn't know that he (Brown) was [injured]" before the wideout exited the playing field and that Brown simply "left the field and that was it," Brown's statement suggested otherwise. What's more is that the wide receiver said he had proof of this, namely in the claim that he had exchanged texts with Arians prior to the game in which his injury was clearly acknowledged.
Early on Thursday morning, Brown published what he says were those text messages on his Twitter.
The conversation reads as follows, written below exactly as it appears on Brown's screenshot:
Arians (12/30, 5:14 p.m.): This is BA. Make sure your ready to go tomorrow. We ARE NOT resting for the playoffs.
Arians (12/31, 12:29 p.m.): Call me
Brown (12/31, 2:14 p.m. - picture of ankle getting taped): I'm all in coach really caint get to full speed I wanna win wanna be there if I wake up tomorrow feel better I'll be ready kinda rolled it outside on 2pt play I want what's best for team lmk when you free I'll call u
Arians: Come see me I'm the morning. We'll talk it out. Definitely want you with us in case you're ready.
As Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times pointed out, however, Arians didn't necessarily mean that he didn't know of Brown's injury at all. He indicated that it wasn't brought up on the sidelines before Brown stormed off during the game.
Brown later posted a screenshot of a different text message thread, this one involving Alex Guerrero. On Instagram, he posted the conversation to his story and tagged Tom Brady in a caption, asking the quarterback, verbatim, "how you even work wit people like this!" In the text message, Guerrero does seem to respond positively and suggest that he'd send something Brown's way.
He eventually deleted the post on Twitter — perhaps because the screenshot included his bank account number and routing number — but can still be seen through screenshots from others. As for the Instagram story, here's what he uploaded.
You can watch the hosts on Audacy Boston affiliate WEEI react to the latest from the oft-discussed wide receiver as the drama continues.
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