Antonio Brown is officially no longer a member of the Buccaneers, as he was let go on Thursday.
On Wednesday night, Brown released a statement through his agent that detailed his version of his controversial exit in the middle last week's game against the Jets, including claiming Bruce Arians did, in fact, know of his ankle injury prior to Week 17's game. Thursday morning, Brown shared those texts on social media.
Following his release becoming official, Arians addressed the Tampa Bay media and responded to Brown's claims, including detailing what occurred in Sunday's game.
"Obviously, we let Antonio go today," he said. "Just to clear you up on some things that happened: At no point in time during that game did he ever the trainer or doctor about his ankle. That's the normal protocol, you go through protocols during games. I was never notified of it so, obviously, that was the disturbing thing when we were looking for him to go back in the game. He was very upset at halftime about who was getting targeted, got that calmed down, players took care of that.
"It started again on the sideline, we called for the personnel group that he had played in the entire game, he refused to go in the game, that's when I looked back and saw him basically wave off the coach. I then went back, approached him about what was going on, 'I ain't playin.' 'What's going on?' 'I ain't getting the ball.' That's when I said you're done, get the F out of here and that's the end of it. And we're working on Carolina. That's the end of the story and hopefully it ends today."
ESPN's Adam Schefter (through GM Jason Licht) adds last week Brown and his agent requested that the remaining $2 million in incentives in his contract for this season be guaranteed, but the team denied.
Below is the statement the Buccaneers released with his release.