After dominating NFL news for much of the offseason, Antonio Brown will apparently keep that trend going through the kickoff of the league’s 100th season tonight.
Less than eight hours before the Bears host the Packers tonight in Chicago, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Oakland Raiders are planning to suspend Antonio Brown for conduct detrimental to the team.
The suspension, which would presumably keep the star wide receiver out of Oakland’s opener on Monday Night Football against the Denver Broncos, stems from an altercation Brown had with Raiders general manager Mike Mayock had on Wednesday.
Hard Knocks left town just a couple days early….
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 5, 2019
Schefter said Brown and Mayock “got into it” over the 31-year-old posting a letter from the team informing him he owed nearly $54,000 due to unexcused absences during training camp and the preseason on social media.
In the Instagram story accompanying the posting, Brown wrote: “WHEN YOUR OWN TEAM WANT TO HATE BUT THERE’S NO STOPPING ME NOW DEVIL IS A LIE. EVERYONE GOT TO PAY THIS YEAR SO WE CLEAR.”
Antonio Brown posts his displeasure with fines from #Raiders pic.twitter.com/0OMhdwFu7K
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) September 4, 2019
Mayock didn’t like what Brown had done which led to the exchange. “Raiders’ GM Mike Mayock has a strong, opinionated personality, as anyone who has watched him knows,” Schefter wrote on Twitter. “WR Antonio Brown is his own man. It creates a combustible combination, to say the least.”
The incident could end up costing Brown much more than $54k, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.
#Raiders WR Antonio Brown and GM Mike Mayock got into it earlier this week, and it got ugly. Mayock clearly frustrated with AB posting his fine letter on Instagram. And now, a suspension for conduct detrimental could mean losing $30M in guaranteed money.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) September 5, 2019
Sources corroborated that notion to Schefter and said there are some within the Raiders organization that want to use the suspension —the length of which has yet to be announced — as a way to end Brown’s time in Oakland and void the $30.125 million that’s guaranteed in his contract.
Under the NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement, a player can be suspended a maximum of four weeks for conduct detrimental to the team.
Rapoport also had a few more details about the altercation between Brown and Mayock. He reported the incident did not get physical, but that Brown did threaten to hit Mayock in the face following a screaming match and punted a football.
Mayock was likely annoyed at Brown posting the letter, as well as the behavior which led the team to fine him in the first place, including getting frost-bitten feet from a cryotherapy treatment in France and waging a battle with the NFL over the use of his outdated helmet.
We’ll update this story as more news comes available. And it will — we’re talking about the Raiders, after all.
UPDATE
After issuing a public apology on Friday afternoon, it sounds as if Antonio Brown will play on Monday night after all.
Here is Antonio Brown’s short statement. #raiders pic.twitter.com/3ot343CZvc
— Dianna (@diannaESPN) September 6, 2019
On Thursday morning, the Raiders called Antonio Brown and told him not to come to work.
On Friday, they said he would play in Monday Night's opener vs. the Denver Broncos.
Knock on wood if anyone knows what's next.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) September 6, 2019
Interesting… the Raiders coaching staff never expected Antonio Brown to miss Monday. In house they kept game planning as if nothing had happened. “Antonio Brown mentally is in a good place” #Raiders
— Dianna (@diannaESPN) September 6, 2019
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