I don’t know about you, but I, personally, am an avid Twitter user and I have a feeling I always will be. I’ve met so many amazing people through that little website, discovered my love for writing, took advantage of so many incredible opportunities, created a following, gotten my name out there, etc. Without Twitter, I genuinely have no idea what my life would be like or the person I would be. Some days the site brings me ever so close to deactivating my account and never returning. Some days the site reminds me of why I made an account in the first place and got sucked into it like so many others. Today, I experienced the latter for perhaps the one-millionth time in my life.
On Thursday, a Pittsburgh sports reporter tweeted out a relatively unsurprising tweet regarding Oakland Raiders’ All-Pro WR Antonio Brown and his status with his new team:
News came out earlier this week that Brown is in the midst of dealing with an injury – specifically frostbitten feet thanks to staying in a cryogenic chamber for too long – that will keep him out indefinitely. At approximately 3:36 EST, Mike Silver of Sports Illustrated unleased a monster of a 20-tweet thread further detailing the wide receiver’s absence from training camp and promptly, more or less, broke NFL Twitter. Prepare yourself for what you’re about to read. You’ve been warned:
…yeah. I had to go back and re-read that thread about ten times in order to attempt to properly grasp exactly what I was consuming. Again, this is what makes Twitter so beautiful – a veteran football writer opted to tweet out an entire thread when he could have, you know, typed up an article for Sports Illustrated. Nope. This man chose the ~engagement~ route and boy, oh boy, did he get that engagement or WHAT. What a guy. That is a Friday in August afternoon sports news dump if I’ve ever seen one.
Not even an hour after that thread was posted, ESPN’s Adam Schefter followed up with yet another tweet that further broke Twitter.com:
Feels a tad irrational, in my humble opinion. That’s just my take on it, though. That hundreds of thousands of others happen to agree with, as well.
Enough stalling, let’s get right into dissecting this juicy thread of NFL news.
Tweet #1: I mean, that’s weird, but alright. I get it. A number of star NFL players were upset by the fact that the 2019-20 season will be the first in which they’re not allowed to wear a certain type of helmet that they’ve worn for years on years on years. The likes of Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers also had to give up their go-to helmet and are now required to wear a league-approved helmet that meets safety regulations. Some have noted that the new helmet restricts vision and will almost certainly require an adjustment at first. Regardless, we should be thankful that the NFL is finally acknowledging the fact that their game is insanely dangerous to the short- and long-term health of their players and their skulls that get rocked on a weekly basis. You would think that a 31-year-old athlete in Antonio Brown would recognize the importance of his health and be willing to practice/play in a safer helmet, right?
Tweets #2-3: What? He refuses to show up to training camp…because of the new helmets? That’s a first. Especially for a wide receiver, a position that notoriously gets thrown around like a ragdoll by their defenders. One would assume that he would be happy to wear a much safer helmet in an attempt to protect his brain in the short and long haul.
Tweets #4-5: Oh, God. Oh, this is so Oakland Raiders. This is SO Jon Gruden. This is SOOO Antonio Brown, it hurts. A football player is singlehandedly causing distress around his team over a helmet and by refusing to show up to practice. That checks out. Let me remind you, this is a 31-year-old, grown-ass man we’re talking about here, acting a fool because he has to wear a different helmet that will better protect his brain.
Tweets #6-10: I need a moment, y’all. I need a breather. I can’t do this. What am I reading here? A grown. ass. man. Refuses to hear and accept the word “no.” A 31-year-old man who makes a base salary of roughly $14.6 million won’t join his new team in training camp, practices and meetings because he doesn’t like his new helmet. Lord, that tenth tweet, “complaining QBs such as Brady and Rodgers were not being subjected to the same scrutiny…” Uh, yeah, Antonio. They’re not receiving “the same scrutiny” because they’re grown-ups and accepted wearing their new helmet the first time without throwing a temper tantrum over it. I need a moment, still…
Tweets #11-13: OH MY GOODNESS…..this made me scream. I audibly hollered when I initially read this. Laughing-crying emojis up the wazoo. This man pitched another fit, put on a mask to disguise his annoyance with the situation and in the meantime went off to Michael’s and purchased some art supplies to PAINT HIS OLD HELMET TO LOOK LIKE THE NEW HELMET HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WEARING. Lord have mercy on my soul, for I am, once again, HOLLERING. This is the work of a 3-year-old. A 3-year-old refusing to hear “no” from their parent, screaming about it for the world to hear and trying to get away with something naughty shortly afterward out of anger. I. Need. A. Moment.
Tweets #14-16: I’ve seen it all. I’ve officially seen it all. At the tender age of 17, I have seen it all. Not once, not twice, but three times this man tried to sneakily wear his old helmet and get away with it, putting his season and his new team’s season in jeopardy by doing so. He didn’t get what he wanted, so he ran away from home. Packed his stuff and took off on his frostbitten feet to Narnia. I shouldn’t be laughing, but I’m cackling as I type this. You cannot make this up. You cannot script this. This league, man. This league.
Tweets #17-20: I love it, man. I love it. You will not find a story like this anywhere else. This story gives me yet another reason to be extremely thankful that I was born a Patriots fan. Not even an ounce of any of this would fly within a 50-mile radius of Foxborough, MA. It’s funny to think that the Patriots actually inquired about trading for Brown at one point, too…crazy times. Allow me to remind you once again: this is a story about a 31-year-old man. Those tweets regard a 31-year-old man. Phew.
While this is a hilarious story and rightfully so, I should probably point out that these are not the actions of a mentally stable human being. I think that should be obvious. I see no harm in laughing at this story because it is one of the more humorous things I’ve personally read in a while. At the same time, I’m seeing some cruel jokes being made about him that would probably be characterized as harmful. I have no idea what Antonio Brown’s life story is and what his background is but at least as of late, he appears to be going off the rails and I do hope that he has friends and family at least attempting to support him and make sure he’s okay. This is extremely childish behavior and, well, not normal for a thirty-one-year-old to be exhibiting (yea, I took AP Psychology my senior year, not to flex or anything).
Brown has always been flamboyant and a downright unique and wacky individual, one of many reasons why he is such a popular and well-known football player. At the same time, I can’t recall him ever doing something this outlandish. He’s always had a unique personality that, at times, has made people angry (one reason why the Pittsburgh Steelers traded him away, we can assume) but I believe we can all agree that this is beyond that. I’m not going to diagnose him with anything or make any assumptions because that would be pathetic of me, but I’m confident in saying something isn’t right up in his noggin. The NFL isn’t the best league to be in if you’re struggling with your mental health, so again, I pray that he has a strong supporting cast in his life that will help him get better.
One could say that this attitude change came from money. Back in 2017, the Steelers broke the bank for Brown by giving him a 3-year, $68 million extension. He’s a rare talent that deserves money like that. At the same time, we all know that money changes people. Brown started acting “different,” for lack of a better term, once he got his big payday. He turned into a “diva”, again, for lack of a better term, and things started getting sour between the player and his team, of course, eventually leading to his departure from the Steelers earlier this year.
Ironically, I think a direct hit to his head is another big one to blame. Back in 2016 in a Wild Card matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals, known POS Vontaze Burfict committed one of his classic dirty hits on Brown, a direct shot to his cranium that makes me cringe each time I watch it. It consistently feels like Brown is this close to getting decapitated with every watch:
Headshots like these, even just one, can completely change a person and permanently wreck their brain to any degree. Perhaps this is one of those instances. Plenty of football players, past and present, can make their case for the poster child of CTE and its effects via the NFL. There’s no question that Brown is already one of those players. He’s already a nine-year NFL veteran and has played in 130 games. There’s no doubt in my mind that his brain has been affected by the game, as well as thousands and thousands of other men who have professionally played football. That’s why this story frustrates me. The league finally got their collective heads out of their collective asses and decided to do something about player safety, something meaningful. One of its biggest and most important players refuses to go along with it and just wear the damn helmet. It’s always something when it comes to this league, it feels like. It’s simultaneously hilarious and embarrassing.
My final take on this situation is as follows, and it’s a mild take. I have a feeling that Brown’s foot injury is worse than we’re being told and he’s attempting to cover his own tracks (pun somewhat intended) by exaggerating his helmet grievances and making sure this is the story as opposed to his frostbitten feet, assuming he does retire. If he retires, we’ll all be like, “well, he retired because he wants to continue playing with his original helmet and the league won’t let him so he’s making a statement” as opposed to “well, he retired because he let his footsies stay in disturbingly low temperatures for a disturbing amount of time and now his feet are literally ruined for life and will suffer extreme consequences for his own actions.” That isn’t as crazy as it may sound if you think about it. Brown obviously cares about his image and perception from the general public so it makes sense that he would want to divert attention away from something he did wrong over to something the league “did wrong.”
One last time before I wrap this up, this is the mind of a 31-year-old man. Yeah. I’m a 17-year-old girl hoping to enter a male-dominated field, about to head off to my freshman year of college, terrified of adulthood. Stories like these about actual adults and the way they act make me feel at least a bit more confident in my abilities to survive in the real world. So, thanks, Antonio, for your time, I guess.
Comentarios