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WR Antonio Brown, FA (11 Viewers)

Faust said:
Antonio Brown will get another shot in the NFL: Former NFL GM
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This is not a unique opinion, but the main issue I have with these types of predictions is that the assumption is that his known prior acts will be resolved without incident AND no more prior acts come out AND there are no more behavior or inappropriateness issues moving forward. IMO, the way things have gone, I am not sure items 2 and 3 are a given, even if item 1 came true. Bottom line, I don't think AB can just suddenly turn into a good soldier and turn over a whole new leaf because he needs to.

 
Anarchy99 said:
This is not a unique opinion, but the main issue I have with these types of predictions is that the assumption is that his known prior acts will be resolved without incident AND no more prior acts come out AND there are no more behavior or inappropriateness issues moving forward. IMO, the way things have gone, I am not sure items 2 and 3 are a given, even if item 1 came true. Bottom line, I don't think AB can just suddenly turn into a good soldier and turn over a whole new leaf because he needs to.
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Unfortunately I think the biggest obstacle for him may be his inability to get out of the public eye and stay out of it. If he grasps that playing football this year isn't likely happening, disappears for the rest of the year and comes back next year able to fake some semblance of sanity, he likely gets a shot. It's an ugly truth but money may well address his prior acts. No idea how many cheques he would need to write or how big they would need to be but money hides a lot of shame.

 
habsfan said:
Unfortunately I think the biggest obstacle for him may be his inability to get out of the public eye and stay out of it. If he grasps that playing football this year isn't likely happening, disappears for the rest of the year and comes back next year able to fake some semblance of sanity, he likely gets a shot. It's an ugly truth but money may well address his prior acts. No idea how many cheques he would need to write or how big they would need to be but money hides a lot of shame.
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While that is a good strategy, I have a hard time believing that AB will "lay low" and stay out of the public's eye for a year. All he needed to do to play in NE was keep his mouth shut and not do anything other than play football . . . and he couldn't make it much past a week before he was up to his old tricks (texting and tweeting).

He won't be out of the limelight, though, as he will likely have grievances filed against the Raiders and Patriots to try to cash in on his $40 million in combined guaranteed money from those two teams.

 
Anarchy99 said:
While that is a good strategy, I have a hard time believing that AB will "lay low" and stay out of the public's eye for a year. All he needed to do to play in NE was keep his mouth shut and not do anything other than play football . . . and he couldn't make it much past a week before he was up to his old tricks (texting and tweeting).
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Yep.  And if he would have behaved himself in Oakland he would have guaranteed money in his bank account too.    The guys is off the rails and I am not sure there is anything that's going to get him back on.

 
I dropped him.  I believe that a prerequisite for someone signing him would be him taking responsibility and demonstrating that by signing a prove it deal, and neither will happen any time soon, if ever.

 
Even if a team signs him during the season, he's very unlikely to play this year.

I think somebody could be interested in the offseason, but that depends on how tarnished he gets with the investigation. Prospective teams will check with the league to see what they found out.

AB is still going to serve some kind of suspension even if he can survive this, maybe a lengthy one.  Playing in a game before mid-season 2020 is highly unlikely.

 
Walking Boot said:
Drop in all seasonal formats. Period.

The NFL statement basically said "he's free to sign with any team, and we'll put him on the Exempt List him as soon as he does, until the investigation is complete." 

So he's exempt as soon as he signs, until the investigation is done. Once it's done, then he gets handed a suspension. That suspension could be for both the alleged assault (4 games? 6?) plus the witness intimidation on top of that.

You're a lawyer. What kind of penalty do you think a judge would throw at someone who engages in witness intimidation on the eve of trial? Think it'll be light?

He's done for this season. If he gets signed in the off-season, he's probably looking at missing at least the first 8 games of next year. If anyone will sign him.

From a PR perspective, he's poison right now and no one will sign him. He needs to rehabilitate his public image to get a contract now. Or wait until the media circus dies down. He's going to have to do another round of Dancing with the Stars or have a series of sit-down cry sessions in the style of a Barbara Walters interview before he can be signed without the team that signs him getting murdered. Unless it's a team that is already dead to the public, like the Redskins.
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I doubt he will get exempted AND suspended. It would probably be one or the other. Big Ben had a civil suit filed against him and he played an entire season. He had a second incident and only got suspended.

A team could sign AB and the league could do neither and the exempt option could have just been a scare tactic. When he was on NE, they did neither and let him play.

I think AB is toxic enough that teams won't look to sign him until the league finishes their investigation. No point paying him if a team might have to wait for the investigation to be completed anyway. I can't remember many times when players got both exempted and suspended. I believe the few times that happened, the player took them to court and won.

And again, all of this is contingent on Brown keeping his mouth shut . . . which hasn't happened much lately.

 
dropped him in dynasty yesterday (only Keep 13 though).

glad to be off the crazy train but will admit...before the offseason rolls around, if he's still on my waiver wire, I'll definitely re-add him as an off-season stash.

 
Godsbrother said:
Yes you have it right. 

I was just correcting the line "I would rather have a criminal..."  Technically no one is a criminal until they are charged and convicted of a crime.
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That's not really true - one can engage in criminal activity and never get caught. Whether or not that makes him a criminal is just semantics.

 
Godsbrother said:
Which is why I said "technically"
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So you wouldn’t consider some one that broke into a house, murdered the family living there and stole everything they could a criminal unless or until they were caught and tried and convicted?

Ben is a criminal - everyone knows this, especially  the DA who was practically in tears that he couldn’t press forward based on the evidence (or lack thereof) even though he knew what happened that night.

 
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Mookie said:
I think he's too toxic for any team to sign and play him at this point.  I just dropped him in redraft for Golden Tate. 
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At least until the legal stuff gets sorted out, yes. I'm just hoping the NFL doesn't intentionally leave this investigation lingering for months on end just to have an excuse to keep him out of the league and hope he's forgotten about. Which I fully expect them to do.

 
Anarchy99 said:
I doubt he will get exempted AND suspended. It would probably be one or the other. Big Ben had a civil suit filed against him and he played an entire season. He had a second incident and only got suspended.

A team could sign AB and the league could do neither and the exempt option could have just been a scare tactic. When he was on NE, they did neither and let him play.

I think AB is toxic enough that teams won't look to sign him until the league finishes their investigation. No point paying him if a team might have to wait for the investigation to be completed anyway. I can't remember many times when players got both exempted and suspended. I believe the few times that happened, the player took them to court and won.

And again, all of this is contingent on Brown keeping his mouth shut . . . which hasn't happened much lately.
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Could very well happen.  The exempt list isn't a punishment, and it doesn't replace the suspension.  If the NFL doesn't want him in the limelight they can use the exempt list while things are cooling off and/or facts are still coming to light and then levy the punishment after that.

 
Hankmoody said:
Could very well happen.  The exempt list isn't a punishment, and it doesn't replace the suspension.  If the NFL doesn't want him in the limelight they can use the exempt list while things are cooling off and/or facts are still coming to light and then levy the punishment after that.
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Isn’t that exactly what happened with Hunt? Or maybe they never put him on the exempt list because no team claimed him?

 
Dr. Octopus said:
Isn’t that exactly what happened with Hunt? Or maybe they never put him on the exempt list because no team claimed him?
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Hunt was exempted and cut. Then he signed and was exempted and later suspended. 

Certainly the league can do whatever it wants, but there still doesn't appear to be any police involvement in any of the allegations against Brown. Who knows if that means anything or not, but the league had been letting AB participating in everything with NE. IMO, enough has gone on that the league won't have to get involved in the short term as no team will sign him at the moment. Next year may be different, so they might just opt for nothing or a suspension and live the exempt list out of it.

 
Dr. Octopus said:
So you wouldn’t consider some one that broke into a house, murdered the family living there and stole everything they could a criminal unless or until they were caught and tried and convicted?
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I would but technically everyone in this country is innocent until proven guilty.  

Dr. Octopus said:
Ben is a criminal - everyone knows this, especially  the DA who was practically in tears that he couldn’t press forward based on the evidence (or lack thereof) even though he knew what happened that night.
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The DA said there was not enough evidence to prove that a crime was even committed.   

I don't want to hijack this tread anymore so this will be my last comment on the subject:  You can presume anything you want but the bottom line is according to the US constitution he is not a criminal.   Now you can say anything you want about Ben but I am NOT about to sit here and listen to you bad mouth the United States of America!   GENTLEMEN!

[Leaving as I hum the Star Spangled Banner...]

 
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Walking Boot said:
OTOH, while they let him participate in everything with NE, that was all prior to tampering with the witness in the NFL's own investigation. That secondary act, attempting to obstruct the NFL's process, may be deserving of exemption that a "he-said-she-said" complaint alone didn't warrant. 

While sexual harassment & assault cases are, sadly, frequent enough to have some guidelines for the league's reaction, I don't know if there's any precedent for intimidating a witness and trying to mess with the commissioner's investigation itself.
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Clearly we are all getting AB fatigue, but even the intimidating text wasn't going to be investigated by the police and would not be a chargeable offense in Massachusetts. So nothing truly criminal there. Dumb? Shady? Absolutely. I go back to when this all started . . . so far AB has not been investigated by law enforcement to even be considered for a crime. The best thing the league could do is to cite him for conduct detrimental to the league . . . but all the other stuff doesn't have a lot of teeth and will set a pretty rocky precedent. 

If the league investigates and takes action against Brown with regard to the civil suit allegation, that could cause Brown to lose the civil case and have him be found liable to have to pay her a big chunk of change. All her attorneys would need to do would be to say in court his own employer disciplined him over it. I am not sure we want the NFL investigating legal matters and having their decisions used as as a pendulum to swing court cases. And mind you, I never was on Brown's side . . . I only was on the the side of someone having to prove allegations.

 
Anarchy99 said:
Clearly we are all getting AB fatigue, but even the intimidating text wasn't going to be investigated by the police and would not be a chargeable offense in Massachusetts. So nothing truly criminal there. Dumb? Shady? Absolutely. I go back to when this all started . . . so far AB has not been investigated by law enforcement to even be considered for a crime. The best thing the league could do is to cite him for conduct detrimental to the league . . . but all the other stuff doesn't have a lot of teeth and will set a pretty rocky precedent. 

If the league investigates and takes action against Brown with regard to the civil suit allegation, that could cause Brown to lose the civil case and have him be found liable to have to pay her a big chunk of change. All her attorneys would need to do would be to say in court his own employer disciplined him over it. I am not sure we want the NFL investigating legal matters and having their decisions used as as a pendulum to swing court cases. And mind you, I never was on Brown's side . . . I only was on the the side of someone having to prove allegations.
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What the NFL does or doesn't do won't have any bearing on the civil action.  And visa-versa.

 
Walking Boot said:
I get that the intimidation wasn't a criminal thing. I just think Roger will have a dim view of a player trying to sabotage the NFL's official investigation by threatening witnesses against him. I don't know what the precedent is for that, but the NFL can certainly police itself. The league can definitely take action against someone for doing something not criminal but still interfering with league operations. I think it might not matter that the action isn't technically criminal, the internal integrity of the commissioner's office and the league itself became an injured party.
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Was the NFL even intending to interview the artist that received the harassing/intimidating texts?

 
I guess AB has a pretty good case to get his signing bonus from the Patriots.  No way the Patriots can say they are not paying AB because he didn’t disclose the civil case against him.  Even though AB didn’t disclose it, the civil case was made public right after the Patriots signed AB and they not only kept him on the team, they even let him play week 2.   So the civil case is a non issue. 

 
With all due respect, it all comes down to the language in the contract, and the fact that the Patriots didn’t choose to pursue remedies as soon as they became aware of his breach of contract would have zero impact on their ability to do so at any point in the future.

 
I wonder when or if Mr. Big Chest is ever going to come to the realization that he should have behaved himself instead of being a repeated jerk.

 
Kevrunner said:
I guess AB has a pretty good case to get his signing bonus from the Patriots.  No way the Patriots can say they are not paying AB because he didn’t disclose the civil case against him.  Even though AB didn’t disclose it, the civil case was made public right after the Patriots signed AB and they not only kept him on the team, they even let him play week 2.   So the civil case is a non issue. 
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Most contracts have a clause that states something along the lines "Failure to act does not constitute a waiver of rights under the contract..."

 
Godsbrother said:
I wonder when or if Mr. Big Chest is ever going to come to the realization that he should have behaved himself instead of being a repeated jerk.
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I think the issue is that he in know way views himself as a jerk. His world view is centered on himself. The concept of him being wrong is just beyond his comprehension. I doubt that changes.

 
Godsbrother said:
I wonder when or if Mr. Big Chest is ever going to come to the realization that he should have behaved himself instead of being a repeated jerk.
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In the litany of crazy things about this entire situation, the craziest is how easily fixable it was. 

I'm sorry if I made people uncomfortable / I'm using this to grow as a person / I will cooperate fully with any investigation / duffel bags of money to accusers / NDAs / pay any outstanding bills / attend fake therapy sessions / televised Q&A with a sympathetic reporter / I want to thank the NFL and my teammates for standing by me during this time / Now I just want to concentrate on football and move forward with my life / shut up / play football / sign mega deal in the off-season

If he wanted to get totally nuts he could have worked with the Patriots to match his 7 figure contribution to a charity for women.

 
Statorama said:
In the litany of crazy things about this entire situation, the craziest is how easily fixable it was. 

I'm sorry if I made people uncomfortable / I'm using this to grow as a person / I will cooperate fully with any investigation / duffel bags of money to accusers / NDAs / pay any outstanding bills / attend fake therapy sessions / televised Q&A with a sympathetic reporter / I want to thank the NFL and my teammates for standing by me during this time / Now I just want to concentrate on football and move forward with my life / shut up / play football / sign mega deal in the off-season

If he wanted to get totally nuts he could have worked with the Patriots to match his 7 figure contribution to a charity for women.
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People that are mentally not right don't think rationally about themselves or their situations, really.

 
rockaction said:
People that are mentally not right don't think rationally about themselves or their situations, really.
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I really thought that was his latest angle, get diagnosed as bi-polar and blame everything on that.  Then go on the tour being the spokesman for getting things right.

As a general rule, people are sympathetic when someone caught up in a web of madness (great band name) seeks treatment (seeking treatment is also a great band name). 

 
check out @ab to see his twitter battle with other nfl players, specifically eric weddle.

this man is completely losing the plot. no... lost the plot. he is getting DESTROYED in his mentions.

 
rockaction said:
I think his troubles go a lot deeper than that. He sounds mentally ill.
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There are some people who come from having very little and then when they finally make it, they go a little overboard with excess.  AB clearly did some of that. Then when you add to it, people begin telling them they are the bee's knees, and they start taking more and more egregious liberties.  AB had been SO good for so long that he literally ran completely unchecked and became a victim of his own success to the point his but can't cash the checks his ego has written.  

I don't think he is mentally ill.  I think he is over the top feeling the impact of feeling privelaged and entitled. He basically had nobody to check himself before he wrecked himself.

 
Even if he does play again he's gonna get lit up by someone on Pittsburgh, Oakland, New England, Baltimore or any team Vontez Burfect plays for etc. He'll probably get knocked out by someone he owes money to or a sibling of somebody he's raped. He should just leave the country in a hot air balloon. 

 
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