Bruce Arians Breaks Down What Happened With Antonio Brown on Sideline vs. Jets

The Antonio Brown saga took another turn today as the wideout went wild on his social accounts. He tweeted out an alleged text message exchange he had with Bruce Arians, accidentally tweeted out his own bank routing information, and posted memes taking shots at Arians and Tom Brady. The overarching message from Brown and his camp is that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had zero sympathy for his injured ankle, attempting to force him to play on Sunday against the New York Jets. That is why Brown flipped out and ripped his jersey off before leaving the stadium entirely.

Shortly after Brown went on his social media attack spree, the Bucs finally officially released him. Bruce Arians normally does not speak to reporters on Thursday, but the outstanding circumstances warranted a change of plan. He got in front of the media directly after practice today and fully explained what happened on the sidelines this past Sunday.

Arians should've done this days ago. It would have shut down most of the noise almost immediately and the story would probably be on its last leg already. Instead it's carried over into the rest of the week.

This will put it all to bed, though. Whenever Brown gets involved in a public battle of opinion, he loses. His online outburst today actually follows his usual blueprint to a T. He works quietly for a while, then gets cut because of something he says or did, then he goes on the attack with evidence he believes will absolve him but in fact makes him look worse. It happened with the Steelers, it happened with the Raiders, it happened with the Patriots, and now it's happening with the Bucs. Every time it's the same thing.

Maybe NFL teams will learn. Probably not, though.