For a variety of reasons, including COVID protocols and reporters not being in the locker room this season, Antonio Brown hasn’t been available much to the media.
This is why there was a ton of attention on his roughly 30 minutes spent with the media Wednesday during Super Bowl week, as it was his first real extended availability since his eventful roughly 18 months that had him suspended for the first eight games of this season.
Brown’s suspension was for violations of the league's personal-conduct policy that stemmed from his no contest plea to burglary and battery charges from a January of 2020 incident in Florida, as well as accusations he sent intimidating texts to a woman who accused the wide receiver of making past unwanted advances toward her.
There were also several others who accused Brown of sexual harassment.
Speaking Wednesday, Brown’s tone was that he views himself as a victim of people doubting him and someone who has overcome adversity. Not once did he take responsibility for anything that’s happened over the last year-plus.
“It’s been a long journey, man, over the course of a year and a half — scrutiny, adversity, you name it, I have been through it,” he said. “But, it didn’t stop me. It didn’t make me want to give up. I just got persistent and got a plan, wrote out my goals, set my intention on what I want in my life and took a step back and got refocused, put out a plan and prayed on it and went out and did it.”
What about his legacy -- what does Brown want that to look like?
“I want my legacy to be a guy that was persistent, a guy that never gave up — no matter the odds, no matter the hate, no matter the scrutiny, no matter what I went through,” he said. “I want my legacy to be a sixth-round kid from Central Michigan that never gave up, earned everything he got. Persevered through every adversity and a guy who had a will of a champion.
“For me, everything I’ve been through prepared me for this position and prepared me for where I am at in my life right now.”
On the field, Brown is one of the most gifted wide receivers ever to play the game, but the last 18 or so months have severely damaged how he’s viewed and it looks even worse when he has expressed no remorse or issued any kind of apology, and seems to think of himself as a victim.
Brown is the one responsible for everything that’s happened, not anyone else. It seems time to accept it and verbalize it.