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Receiver Antonio Brown accused Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians of make him play injured and take him out like an animal in the game of week 17 against New York Jets.
“I gave in to pressure from my coach to play injured. I didn’t quit, they fired me. I would never abandon my brothers. They took me out like an animal and I refused to wear his brand on my chest, so I took off my jersey, ”the player wrote in a statement.
Tampa Bay won last Sunday’s game 28-24 at the home of the New York Jets. Towards the end of the third quarter, when the Buccaneers trailed 24-10, Brown took off his shoulder pads along with his sweater number 81 and threw them to the ground next to the team bench. The player He described the dialogue he had prior to this action.
“I sat down and my coach came and yelled at me, What’s the matter with you?; i told him it’s my ankle; he already knew, we had a talk about it. Ordered me to go back to the field, I said: “I can’t! and instead of calling for medical attention he yelled at me, “You’re done!”
At the post-match press conference Bruce Arians announced that Brown was no longer a Buccaneers player. The 33-year-old veteran wrote a statement on his social networks in which he explained that dragged an ankle injury of which his trainer was aware.
“My injury shows fragments of broken bones stuck in my ankle, the torn ligament of the bone and cartilage loss, which is very painful. You can see the bone bulging from the outside“, Details in the statement.
He even revealed that he received a drug to play: “Despite the pain I evened out, I was injected with what I know is a powerful and, sometimes dangerous pain reliever that many times it has been warned not to be used by the NFL Players Association ”.
Antonio Brown left the Steelers in 2019 for problems with passer Ben Roethlisberger. Happened to the Raiders where refused to accept the changes that the league imposed on the helmets for greater safety of the players and he left the team that same year.
He was signed by the Patriots, a squad that cut him for allegations of sexual misconduct. With Tampa Bay he won Super Bowl LV, but in December of this year he was suspended three games for falsify a COVID-19 vaccination certificate.
The receiver accepted the failures in his career, but considered that not for them he deserved the treatment he received: I acknowledge my past, but my past does not make me a second-class citizen. My past does not exclude my right to be heard when I am in pain ”.
You can also read: Antonio Brown’s allegations against the Buccaneers will be investigated by the Players Association