The sports media landscape is like a double-edged sword; these talking heads are never going to make a name for themselves if they don’t say outlandish hot takes that set them apart from the field but if they go too far past the line then they’re considered a joke.
That’s why all of these sports media personalities are so obnoxious; they’re all trying to one-up each other.
And the sports media embarrassed themselves by taking the bait over this NFL player’s recent charades.
Antonio Brown is without a doubt considered to be one of the greatest NFL wide receivers of all time and he’s proven it year-in-and-year-out over the course of his nine-year professional career thus far.
He spent the first nine in Pittsburgh with the Steelers, but after the Oakland Raiders (soon to be Vegas Raiders next year) traded a 3rd and 5th round pick for the future hall of famer.
But with that kind of talent almost always comes with prima donna drama, especially in professional sports.
Brown did not leave the Steelers under good terms. Late last year, Brown didn’t play in a pivotal game that could’ve gotten them into the playoffs because there was bad blood between Brown, and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Most analysts pointed fingers at Brown for being the main instigator in the situation but that turned out to be emphatically false when Roethlisberger threw his teammate under the bus on a radio interview and Smith-Schuster posted a passive-aggressive picture on Instagram catching the ball over two Raiders defenders.
They were wrong that time.
Then, it was reported Brown was injured when he entered into a cryotherapy chamber without the proper footwear, which caused severe frostbite on the bottoms of his feet. You probably saw the analysts bemoaning how he could be so irresponsible. But that also turned out to be not true because he did wear the proper footwear; he just had a lot of dead skin on the bottoms of his feet.
Again, they were wrong.
And then there was the whole helmet issue. Brown has used the same helmet throughout his entire professional career but the NFL and the NFLPA reached an agreement to safe-check every single one – banning those they deem unsafe.
After that, a report shook the NFL world that Brown was threatening to retire if he wouldn’t be able to wear his old helmet.
The sports media cried about how Brown was a terrible teammate; how he was a diva.
But they didn’t have all the facts again.
Following Thursday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, Brown squashed that rumor.
He said, “I hate when my mom call me, and my dad call me [and ask about] retirement. Where you get that from? I never said that.”
.@AB84 on the outside noise. Mom asked him where the retirement stuff came from: pic.twitter.com/7oYdpdHur5
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) August 16, 2019
And during that game, Brown was a sideline cheerleader (he didn’t play), rooting for everyone when they made good plays.
He was joking around with head coach Jon Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr on the sideline too – even after the entire sports media realm claimed the Raiders organization was growing tired of Brown’s alleged antics.
But Brown didn’t show up to practice on Sunday and general manager Mike Mayock was clearly frustrated and presented their new star receiver with an ultimatum, “You all know that A.B. is not here today. So here’s the bottom line. He’s pretty upset about the helmet issue. We have supported that. We appreciate that. But at this point, we’ve pretty much exhausted all avenues of relief. So from our perspective, it’s time for him to be all in or all out. So we’re hoping he’s back soon.”
And of course, you guessed it, the sports media claimed it was over – the relationship was over.
But Brown showed up on Monday and destroyed their expectations for a fourth time.
Are we really shocked by any of these terrible reports? These assumptions are all fake news.