The latest news about Antonio Brown are sexual assault allegations. If true, and all data indicates that false allegations occur less than 10% of the time, this is more disturbing than any of the five items that I will list. While the emails certainly don’t make Brown look good, at the time of this writing I simply do not feel I have enough information to speak on this.
There are at least five things I do feel comfortable speaking on as take-aways from the Antonio Brown drama.
In no particular order, they are as follows:
- THE NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS ARE IN THE HEAD OF THE PITTSBURGH STEELERS!
That has been clear for some time on the field, even before Sunday’s 30-3 thrashing. As great as Brown has been against the rest of the league, against the Patriots he has been “Ok”. The team is 2-5 against them since his arrival and he has averaged under 5 catches per game and has only had one 100-yard game. The fact that the Steelers may have actually passed up a better compensation package from the “Evil Empire in the Northeast” to keep Brown away from them speaks volumes. And yet he ends up there anyway, as did LaGarrett Blount and James Harrison before him;
- HE LEFT $20 MILLION IN GUARANTEED SIGNING BONUS MONEY ON THE TABLE
Even if winning a ring is more important to Brown than money, is it really $20 million dollars more important? As a friend noted, this is generational wealth. The dude has 4 children. It wasn’t just about him… or at least it should not have been just about him. The thing about this on the money side is Brown could have gotten it without all this drama. Julio Jones just became the highest paid receiver in NFL history and I wouldn’t know his voice any more than Kawhi Leonard’s.
- VALIDATION OF HIS NARCISSISM
The two finalists in America for Narcissist of the Decade are Donald Trump and Antonio Brown… and Brown has a chance to pull off the upset! Other than being rich, if you are on ANY list with Donald Trump, you need to take a good, long look in the mirror and not to admire yourself. If Brown, in fact, got what he wanted, this whole process has emboldened him as is. The thing to remember about the narcissistic personality type is that it is unfulfillable. Trying to satisfy and accommodate it is about as likely as filling up a black hole with dirt. For Brown’s sake, let’s hope an older and wiser Terrell Owens can connect with him about the long view and the price to be paid for one’s narcissism. The reality is that even the great Michael Jordan was humbled by the Wizards. Bill Gates is white…and was the richest man in the world when a court told him that he could not do whatever he wanted to do. Everyone must answer to someone.
- THE COLLATERAL DAMAGE OF DRAMA PIMPING
The column that I was initially going to write was going to be called, “What the F%$#* is wrong with Antonio Brown?”
I reconsidered for two reasons: 1) It would be low hanging fruit, unlikely to bare any perspective not already commonly discussed and most importantly; 2) What if Brown really does have a personality disorder and isn’t just being a petulant clown?
The second is what concerns me most. I want no part of contributing to the already too neglected collateral damage from drama pimping. By drama pimping I mean the exploitation of human grief, struggles, and pain for profit.
Some will say I am embellishing the issue. If it’s just for entertainment, what’s the problem?
The problem is when manufactured drama for the exclusive purpose of entertaining is conflated with real life human struggles that are rooted in genuine mental health issues, the general public has a hard time telling the difference. Add to that the ignorance and stigma about mental health and such compounds the problem of getting those really suffering to seek treatment. Shows like Iyanla Vanzant’s Fix My Life are ground zero for this conflation.
- THE PATRIOTS ARE VULTURE CAPITALISTS
The Canadian writer Naomi Klein wrote a book called the “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism”. The book basically describes the process of how vulture capitalist takes advantage of disaster victims in desperate situations. They swoop in and devour the last bits of flesh off the carcass of the victims. They did it in Haiti, New Orleans, and are hovering over the Bahamas as we speak. The Patriots are the sports version of vulture capitalist. They rummage through the dysfunction of other organizations and when the time is right, swoop in and secure an asset for pennies on the dollar of its actual value. It’s actually a great tactic when limited to the sports world. Beyond the sports world, it’s predatory and inhumane.
The Patriots were already one of the favorites to win yet another Super Bowl. Now they are the favorites to win. It’s not as if some of the reclamation projects that the Patriots have attempted have all worked out. Chad Johnson and Albert Haynesworth come to mind. But Brown is the first of such to still be in the prime of his career and could very well push them over the top.
Like I said, none of the take-aways are good…unless you are a Patriots fan.
