Seeing the news today made my stomach churn. Not in a good way, if there is such a way for a churning stomach to be positive.
The New Orleans Saints, I guess, doing their due diligence, worked out free-agent WR Antonio Brown today. That is, rapist currently under investigation by the National Football League, free-agent wide receiver Antonio Brown.
One, I only read that tweet up to “…the New…” and almost threw my phone, anticipating the following words to be “…England Patriots…”. Second, because ARE YOU KIDDING ME.
Get him out of and away from the league. At all costs. Antonio Brown was accused by his former trainer, Britney Taylor, of sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions, firstly of exposing himself and secretly masturbating behind her and ejaculating on her back on two separate occasions in 2017, and of raping her in 2018.
On top of that, an artist (whose name we do not know) also came forth with allegations against Brown, claiming that he had also sexually harassed her back in 2017.
The league began an investigation in early October of this year and has yet to merely speak on the investigation and its current standing/findings, let alone make a decision on it. Brown last played in the NFL with the New England Patriots (unfortunately) back in Week 2 against the Miami Dolphins and was subsequently cut on September 20, a little over a week later. For obvious reasons.
During the week after the Miami game, the allegations by both females were brought forth and made public by Taylor, in which the Patriots were forced to cut ties with the receiver:
Yeah, that’ll get you unemployed real quick. This would keep the average citizen out of a decent job for a very, very long time. However, in the privileged case of Antonio Brown, he’s still getting workouts with a Super Bowl-hopeful team like the Saints. His name hasn’t been tarnished, such as in the case of a fellow, black, once-professional football player by the name of Colin Kaepernick.
I find it compelling how Kaepernick has gone through hell and back in real life, on social media/the Internet and in the National Football League simply because he was trying to make a positive social change in the world; but, Brown, on the other hand, is accused by multiple women of sexual assault, and continues receiving the best media coverage, receiving workouts from contending teams and gets praised and bowed down to under each and every one of his social media posts.
I also find it compelling how the only time in which Brown was scrutinized and criticized for his alleged actions was during the short, ten-day time span in which he was a New England Patriot. I swear, the only time I heard a negative peep out of fans or the media was that short week in which he donned a Patriots uniform in an ultimately meaningless Week 2 game against the meaningless Miami Dolphins. Why is this the case?
Is it because he’s funny on social media, he’s “goofy”, he’s carefree? Does his extremely apparent mental illness excuse him from receiving due criticism and punishment from the league? If Kaepernick poked fun at his situation and at his treatment by the league, would he be adored and applauded by people across the world? Kaepernick has essentially been banished from the league and I highly doubt he ever gets signed by a team again, for standing up for what he believes in. Brown, however? The Saints will probably pick him up and receive zero backlash for it and will probably be praised for the move when, in fact, they are selling out as an organization and making a fool of themselves.
When the Patriots signed Antonio Brown back in early September, I was pretty stunned. I kind of saw it coming, I guess. Classic Patriots, you know? However, in light of the allegations made by those two women, I was uneasy about the signing. I was excited, but deep down, sick over it. This was before the evidence of text messages and emails were brought to light online. It was, at the end of the day, a pretty embarrassing move by the Patriots, even before the evidence was leaked. It was, perhaps, one of the least Patriots-esque moves in the history of the franchise. Thank God they came to their senses and cut him almost immediately.
However, it is still unclear if the Patriots were even aware of the allegations made against Brown as the timeline of them being released to teams and the signing by New England of the wide receiver are shaky. My opinion remains as it is, though. Brown was already an unstable athlete and unstable human, making that very clear in the month of August of 2019.
Bringing it back to the investigation, serious question: did the NFL forget about it? I haven’t heard legitimately anything from the league regarding the matter since it was announced well over two months ago now. I’ve said it one million times and I’ll say it again as well as one million more times: the National Football League does not care about domestic or sexual violence, especially domestic or sexual violence committed by its players. They have proved time and time again this fact. By them blatantly neglecting to properly investigate Antonio Brown and his actions, they’re reaffirming their stance on this growingly important issue in the world and in their own league. The case of Tyreek Hill (see entire rant-laden thread) set it in stone multiple times over the last few years. Brown merely solidifies it.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it appears Brown’s mental state has only worsened since the last I wrote about him. All he does it tweet and post, making an utter fool of himself time and time again. I think since he was released by the Patriots, he has attacked and apologized to Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick roughly twenty-five times (exaggeration, but it sure feels like it). He’s cringy, he doesn’t use his brain, he isn’t humorous, he’ has some moronic music video currently in the works, he retracts everything he puts on social media within ten minutes of initially posting it (for example, he even deleted that picture he put on his Instagram story confirming that he had in fact worked out for the Saints), and so on and so forth. I cannot take it any longer. I unfollowed him on social media a long time ago. He needs genuine help and no one appears to want to do that for him; instead, he’s getting the approval that he seeks on social media from his weirdo fans that enable him to further lose his marbles by the Tweet. It’s weird and he shouldn’t be allowed to play football again for numerous reasons.
The one upside is, if New Orleans were to sign him, they would be fully aware that the NFL will most likely place him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List due to the fact that the league’s investigation on him remains ongoing.
This means that, as stated by the NFL, “The Exempt List is a special player status available to clubs only in unusual circumstances. The List includes those players who have been declared by the Commissioner to be temporarily exempt from counting within the Active List limit. Only the Commissioner has the authority to place a player on the Exempt List; clubs have no such authority, and no exemption, regardless of circumstances, is automatic.”
For example, Michael Vick (2009), Jonathan Vilma (2012), Adrian Peterson (2014), Greg Hardy (2014), Josh Brown (2016), Reuben Foster (2018) and Kareem Hunt (2018) have all landed on the commissioner’s exempt list in recent years.
Brown has no place in football and does not even remotely deserve to play for a team, let alone a contending team, ever again. I’d like to make that as clear as day. If you’re one of those clowns supporting his every pathetic Tweet on Twitter, I encourage you to get a life and refrain from enabling such a scumbag. Good day, sirs.
留言