In a shocking turn of events the last few days, superstar wide receiver Antonio Brown has officially been released from the Oakland Raiders, a day before the team’s season opener. After signing a huge $50 million deal during the offseason, his dispute with the team stems from heavy fines he’s been incurring, and have lead the famous wide-out to make some head scratching moves. Apparently, he was fined $250k for threatening to hit the team’s general manager, Mike Mayock the other day, and just yesterday, Antonio released a secretly taped conversation he had with team head coach, Jon Gruden.
The move from the Raiders comes just hours after Antonio posted to Instagram demanding to be released. Hard to figure which stunt really broke the camel’s back though… the secret tape, the threat of violence to Mayock, or the Instagram post. One thing is for sure, ’84’ as a Raider is no more – seemingly because Antonio is outraged over a couple hundred thousand dollars in fines, that appear to be legitimate, eventhough he had a $50 million deal that would’ve been locked in 24 hours. However if he’s picked up quck, TMZ Sports is reporting he could actually be on the field somewhere next week.
Easy to see many teams wanting what is considered by many to be the best wide receiver in the league, but hard to imagine many having an extra $50 million lying around at this point, especially when they will have to consider his conduct the last few days. This thing could take a while.
We’ll be sure to pop back with updates on this drama, for sure. Until the next time it drips…