Antonio Brown and the Oakland Raiders appear to be headed for a messy divorce, and the star receiver confirmed on Saturday that he has no intention of playing in the season opener against the Denver Broncos on Monday night.
Brown apologized on Friday for his incident with GM Mike Mayock earlier in the week, and head Jon Gruden confirmed that the plan was for the star receiver to play in Week 1, not be suspended. However, things were apparently anything but smoothed over, as the team then angered Brown by fining him for the Mayock incident.
On Saturday morning, Brown took to Instagram to tell the Raiders to release him. ESPN’s Adam Schefter followed by reporting that Oakland fined Brown more than $200,000 for conduct detrimental to the team and voided the roughly $30 million on his contract. In an email to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, Brown confirmed that the Raiders have voided his guarantees and said there is “no way” he will play under the current circumstances.
I just got an email from Antonio Brown. He tells me the team “took away my guarantees.” He added there’s “no way I play after they took that and made my contract week to week.” So at this moment, once again, don’t expect AB to play on Monday Night Football.
— Jeff Darlington (@JeffDarlington) September 7, 2019
Simply put, this situation is as ugly as it gets. Brown publicly ripped the Raiders earlier in the week for fining him over missed practice time, and the letter informing him of those penalties clearly stated that he was being fined for conduct detrimental to the team. It’s possible the Raiders’ intention all along has been to part ways with Brown without having to pay him.
Brown apologized to the Raiders on Friday and was never actually suspended over his ugly confrontation with Mayock. He later shared a video on YouTube that featured a private conversation he had with Gruden, in which he seemed to hint that he still was not ready to put all of the drama in the past.
It seems highly unlikely that Brown will play against the Broncos, and the NFL Players Association is sure to fight the Raiders over voiding Brown’s guaranteed money. This situation could drag on for quite a while.
