In his first television interview since being dropped from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Antonio Brown revealed the team tried to bribe him into going to a mental health facility.
While discussing his release on HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” the free agent opened up about the Buc‘s response to his ankle injury. He claimed that he was given Toradol shots to mask the pain and was later offered a $200,000 injury settlement that called for him to sit out the remainder of the season and seek professional mental health care.
“These guys at Tampa Bay Bucs tried to make an agreement with me to give me $200,000 to go to the crazy house so these guys could look like they know what they’re talking about,” Brown said.
His lawyer Sean Burstyn provided further explanation. “The offer was Antonio would basically sit on the sidelines, go on some list and commit himself to some form of intensive mental health treatment,” Burstyn said. “And we were specifically told in writing by the general manager [Jason Licht] twice, ‘Don’t spin this any other way.’”
When asked whether he was in need of any mental health treatment, Brown — who previously said nothing is wrong with him mentally — maintained that he has “mental wealth.”
“I know a lot of people may not understand me or know how I look at things or don’t know how I react emotionally to things. But that’s not for them to understand me,” he said. “I’ve got a beautiful family, kids and people all across the world that look up to me. There’s no reason I’m in this position at this point.”
The athlete also disclosed that he’s considering legal action against the Bucs for painting him as someone who has mental health issues.
“It’s totally disrespect, man,” said Brown. Mental health is an important key in the world, so to drag people along and play on people’s mental health it’s unfair and unfortunate.”