Bruce Arians lied to himself about Antonio Brown

Maya Angelou, who gave us a lot of stunning words and made available good wisdom for the duration of her amazing lifestyle, remaining this most enduring lesson: When an individual demonstrates you who they are, believe that them the 1st time. 

Folks can chat all they want, but their steps expose their heart.

Bruce Arians realized who Antonio Brown was, effectively ahead of Sunday, when Brown threw but a further mood tantrum, this time on the industry at MetLife Stadium, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trailing the New York Jets. 

Arians observed Brown firsthand in Pittsburgh, in which he was offensive coordinator for Brown’s very first two NFL seasons. And even right after Arians remaining the Steelers, he probably listened to from his former colleagues about Brown’s antics and selfishness on the field and in the locker place. Everybody could go through the headlines with the allegations of domestic violence from moms of his young children, the lawsuit alleging he raped a person of his previous trainers and the several people today who entered into business enterprise contracts with Brown only to have them say he reneged and refused to pay, from time to time saying social media posts endorsing their work have been a form of forex.

Bruce Arians realized who Antonio Brown was. He advised a radio demonstrate in March 2020 that even although the Buccaneers had signed Tom Brady and Brady was an ally of Brown in spite of Brown investing considerably less than two months with the Patriots (and torching his bridge with team brass on the way out, natch) adding Brown in Tampa Bay was “not gonna materialize.”

“Yeah, I just know him, and — it’s not a healthy in our locker place,” Arians included in that job interview.

And nevertheless someplace together the way, irrespective of whether it was Brady’s prodding or the unyielding have to have to win or the disarming charm we have listened to Brown can turn on when he wants or the desire to insert a Super Bowl ring to his hand as a head coach, Arians persuaded himself that what he believed was a lie.

He signed Brown. And then he signed him once more.

On Sunday, Arians stopped lying to himself. He’d noticed ample, and declared right after the activity, the one in which Brady led a different video game-profitable landing in the closing seconds, that Brown’s times as a Buccaneer had been done.

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It says so significantly about the NFL that this was the point that acquired Brown cut, and if previous is prologue, it will be the point that potential customers to him not actively playing in the league again. 

It was not the alleged violence from females in his lifetime, it wasn’t the assault on a relocating truck employee, it was not the rape allegation, it wasn’t the phony vaccination card.

It was quitting on his crew. 

That is the cardinal sin in the NFL. 

That is what led Arians to halt lying to himself and re-focus on who Brown truly is and what he realized to be genuine.

Coaches and corporations coddled and enabled Brown for yrs, wowed by what he introduced on match days. What we see now is the end result of that enabling: Brown in no way can take obligation for everything he does. As lately as last week, he experimented with to get a Bucs beat reporter to process for bringing up his suspension and what it meant to him that Arians experienced trapped by him, declaring the media is “all about drama.”

Brown is the King of Self-Inflicted Drama. That suspension came about when the NFL opened an investigation since a chef, who claimed that Brown owed him thousands of bucks, advised a reporter that there was a sturdy likelihood Brown’s vaccine card was fraudulent. The irony of it all. 

Every single a single of Brown’s blowups, on and off the field, have been excused away due to the fact he can catch a soccer.

Arians experienced reported upon signing Brown in late October 2020 that the receiver would be long gone if he experienced one screwup. Quite a few people today thought faking his COVID vaccination card was that screwup, but it was not to Arians, who just days ago explained to reporters in Tampa he “could give a s***” about men and women who ended up significant of the team’s final decision to retain Brown after serving his three-recreation suspension.

A 7 days in the past he gloated to reporter Peter King that Brown had been “a product citizen” in his 14 months with the Bucs.

Seven times afterwards, below we are. 

That electrical power Arians experienced defending himself and common supervisor Jason Licht for holding Brown was nowhere to be observed after the sport. Immediately after declaring Brown was no for a longer period a Buc, he supplied a pitiful “I’m not speaking about him” when requested to elaborate on what unfolded on the sideline that led to Brown stripping from the waistline up, throwing his undershirt and gloves into the stands, and then carrying out some type of strange jog-off into the tunnel, throwing deuces alongside the way.

You didn’t just tacitly assist him by preserving him on the roster, Bruce, you informed absolutely everyone he’d altered. You did that. 

But on the working day Brown inevitably turned on Arians — the working day the mentor experienced to know was coming due to the fact Brown has turned on fairly considerably everyone who has tried to assist him and given him a job about the past several years — instantly Arians experienced practically nothing to say, at least not to the reporters who are there every single day creating about his workforce and probable would supply pushback. At the minute Arians necessary to be accountable, he wasn’t.

Perhaps he was harm after finding stabbed in the back, but when you might be working with somebody who is normally a second absent from pulling out that proverbial knife, you know it truly is only a matter of time right up until they do.

Bruce Arians understood who Antonio Brown was. He certain himself that what he knew to be real was a lie. 

On Sunday, in the most general public way, Brown committed the NFL’s cardinal sin. And for that, Arians at last opened his eyes once again to who Brown seriously is.