Antonio Brown posted a video on YouTube Friday night that contained audio from a phone conversation he had with Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden.
Brown posted the video to his YouTube account and a brief clip on Instagram. Brown’s video summary suggested his goal was to control his own narrative.
“With all these false narratives antagonizing me, it’s time for me to control my own narrative. Show the world I’m not the bad guy. Show the world you can free yourself from the lies and become your own person. I am not just AB the football player, I am Antonio Brown, the person, who paved a way for himself to be in charge of his own life. Free me!” Brown wrote.
The video contains audio from Gruden telling Brown he is “not a villain” and just “misunderstood.”
“You’re not a villain. You’re just the most misunderstood f—ing human being in my entire life that I’ve ever met,” Gruden is heard telling Brown. “I brought you here because you’re my favorite guy. I’ve never seen anyone work harder. I don’t know where you are in your life off the field. All I know is you’ve got a lot of things going. There’s a lot of people that have an opinion about you. Whether it be good or bad, you’re in the spotlight all the time.
“Let me ask you this: do you want to be a Raider or not?
“Please stop this s— and just play football. How hard is that? You’re a great football player, just play football.”
Brown is heard saying he is “more than just a football player.”
Here is the video. Beware it contains curse words:
According to ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Gruden was said to be amused by the video and found it to be “awesome.”
More on @AB84 You Tube video: Raiders source says Gruden was truly amused by it and even thought it was "awesome."
That's all. Next.— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) September 7, 2019
Maybe Brown didn’t want “Hard Knocks” getting all the good content and was saving it for himself.
Brown has been fined twice by the Raiders this week, once for missing a practice event and the second time for his incident with Raiders GM Mike Mayock. Brown is still expected to play on Monday night.
