Receiver’s absence upsets bosses as helmet saga drags on ... and on
Roughly 3,000 players have suited up this year in the 32 NFL training camps. Roughly 2,999 of those players wore, and continue to wear, a helmet. Luckily for me, I had Antonio Brown in the “Who won’t wear a helmet” office pool.
Brown noshowed the Raiders’ practice Sunday. General manager Mike Mayock explained why. This is about Brown’s ongoing helmet issue. Mayock’s frustration with Brown was evident.
As with all the Brown adventures since the Raiders traded for him, there seems to have been imperfect communication between the player and the team. Apparently, a $15 milayear salary doesn’t buy the team a nickel’s worth of respect.
There are possible solutions for this dilemma. Brown could cut through all the red tape. Based on the evidence presented, his head is so hard that he would qualify for an NFL waiver allowing him to play without a helmet.
If Brown plays under such an exemption, already having demonstrated that money is not what’s important to him, he could donate his $30 million guaranteed salary over the next two seasons to a fund benefiting the thousands of NFL players in the past who suffered head trauma and lasting side effects while wearing the oldschool helmets.
When I was a guest on a 95.7 FM show Saturday, host Rick Tittle asked my opinion of all the Brown stuff, now that the helmet issue was reportedly settled. I said the fun is not over. When it comes to crazy stunts and stories, Antonio Brown is the gift that keeps on giving.
You know who else saw this coming? Everybody.
If the Raiders didn’t see this coming, Mayock, head coach Jon Gruden and owner Mark Davis were wearing their helmets backward.
The Raiders fell victim to Father Flanagan Syndrome. Father Flanagan was a priest who ran Boys Town from 1917 through ’48, saving souls with the philosophy that there’s no such thing as a bad kid.
Most football coaches believe that they can fix troubled guys. They can take in a player with weird baggage and lose that baggage. Show him brotherly love, fatherly discipline, bring him in to the fold, bathe him in your team’s magically spectacular camaraderie, and presto.
Brown is a special case, though, and apparently many NFL coaches and teams weren’t confident they could endure Brown’s hijinks or turn him into a solid team guy.
The Raiders didn’t take just a flier on Brown. Thirty million guaranteed is no flier, it’s a deep commitment.
Doubling down on their selfbelief, the Raiders also signed Richie Incognito, proof of the arrogance of MayockGrudenDavis. Maybe Gruden and Mayock got sucked into the Raiders’ mystique, the muchdebunked belief that magic happens when a player steps into that locker room.
Maybe it will, if Brown ever gets that far.
If Brown comes back, stay tuned. You can write off the frostbite to bad luck or overzealous training or to a mistake. But with this man, adventure lies around every corner. Last week, he was sued by a chef who claims Brown stiffed him to the tune of $38,000 for a big party Brown threw in 2018. According to reports, when the chef was fired, he was warned not to make eye contact with Brown when exiting the house. Tick ... tick ... tick. “Hard Knocks” went easy on the Brown saga in the first two episodes, possibly because the HBO show’s producers were reluctant to poke Gruden and the Raiders with a stick. Stepping delicately around the story this week will be a real challenge.
How will this end? My guess is that Brown will push the issue to the limit (he’s close!), milk it for all the weird exposure he can get, then back off, report, suit up, helmet up, and play football.
He clearly revels in the attention and drama he creates. By taking the helmet situation this far, Brown has shown us how important football, and the Raiders, and his teammates, are to him.
Remember Terrell Owens’ tearful “That’s my quarterback” speech? I’m predicting a similar, highly emotional declaration from Brown. “That’s my helmet.”
Rest easy, Raiders fans. Once the helmet situation is resolved, nothing else could go wrong. My sources tell me Brown’s jock meets league specs.