When Antonio Brown held his 10-question AMA on Saturday (that ended up as five questions, but who’s counting?), there was one tweet that got a passing remark from me that meant nothing. Well, I didn’t mean it anyway:
Not for the money its for the love of the sport ! The commitment to win relentlessly consistently passionately ! Plus I made 70 million it’s public record not to be cocky just truth! Time to play for my own Team AB84 the family ! https://t.co/v4vFO2QCSf
— Antonio Brown (@AB84) February 16, 2019
When going over this tweet and thinking nothing of it, I spoke of an old saying: when someone says, “It’s not about the money,” it’s about one thing: the money. I didn’t mean to stir trouble, but then Brown gave us our morning drive on Tuesday:
“If your team got guaranteed money, tell them call me. AB can’t do no more unguarantees.”
“If your team got guaranteed money, they want to get to know me and work with me, tell ‘em call me ... I ain’t got time to waste. I got five kids, you heard?”
“Call me Mr. Big Chest, Big Chest from now on, Big Chest Brown from now one. Don’t even call me AB, just call me Big Chest, yeah Mr. Big Chest. Tell your team I’m maxing out and if they want me tell them to be maxing out, you heard?”
In there, he says he wants guaranteed money. And to be called Mr. Big Chest. One of those two statements contradicts something on Saturday’s edition of Antonio Brown Watch. I’ll let you decide which one. Thanks to the Shredder and Krang hiding the Technodrome deep beneath the earth, I’ll never be able to break in and use its powers for good in trying to figure out what the hell Brown is talking about in any of this.
To be fair, Brown is speaking on guaranteed money. Saying he “can’t do no more unguarentees.” That’s not saying he wants the largest contract, or a large contract in general, he just wants more guarantees. Is it all about the money now? That’s still in the eye of the beholder, but it’s odd that he first says it’s not for the money then goes out of his way to say he’s done with non-guaranteed contracts.
Money or not, Brown’s social media presence in general isn’t helping his cause. Peter King said in his Weekly Football in America column that one team is already scared away by his antics:
“I think the more Antonio Brown tweets, the more he scares off potential suitors. (That’s not just something I think. In the case of one team, it’s something I know.)”
A Tweet scared away one team, that Instagram video might frighten another. You never know. Will Brown get his money or his new moniker? The NFL Combine comes up and that’s where we should get some idea of where these pieces fit.
Right now, with him saying one thing, then wanting the opposite, it’s hard to figure out what Brown really is motivated by. Or what he’s really saying.
Well, except becoming Mr. Big Chest.