Joe Santoro: Antonio Brown is not crazy


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Antonio Brown, then wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, waves to the crowd as he leaves the field on January 2, 2022, in East Rutherford, NJ (Andrew Mills / NJ Advance Media via AP)

We are now supposed to have mercy on Antonio Brown. We’re meant to feel empathy, sympathy and compassion for the (former?) Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver after he acted like Ned Braden in the movie Slap Shot, stripping to the waist and strutting out from the field last weekend.
Mr. Perfect Tom Brady, after all, feels sorry for him. “I love it,” Brady said this week. “I have a lot of empathy for the things that are going on in his life. Former NFL defensive back Rodney Harrison says the NFL needs to help Brown because he is suffering from CTE. Harrison said CTE made Brown remove his jersey, shoulder pads and helmet and walk out of the pitch, waving to the crowd by stepping out like a stripper around closing time.
Reports tell us that Bucs head coach Bruce Arians is at fault because he repeatedly tried to force Brown back onto the pitch despite Brown complaining of a serious injury to the pitch. ankle. It is also an ankle injury that apparently disappeared when Brown was doing his striptease. So, yeah, everyone’s at fault if Brown acts like a spoiled, selfish, attention-seeking 3-year-old this weekend. The sport of soccer, of course, is also at fault as it gave Brown CTE. The coaches are at fault because all they want is Brown to perform well on the pitch. The fans are at fault because, well, they allow his erratic behavior by buying his jersey and idolizing him. Everyone except Brown is at fault.
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Brown has been active on social media since leaving the Bucs bench. If it’s crazy, well, we’re all in trouble. He had enough common sense to put on all his clothes before leaving the stadium in a driver’s car. If this is crazy then we all need help. Who hasn’t, after all, forgotten to put on a shoe shirt or both when going out to get the mail?
Brown released a rap video just hours after supposedly fading on Sunday. It’s not crazy. He’s a guy promoting his next career. Brown was at the Brooklyn Nets NBA game the following night. Has the CTE acted again? Hey, there is no truth to the rumor that he went there to give Kyrie Irving his fake vaccination card. And he didn’t strip himself across the pitch during a timeout, either. So he was just a guy sitting in the stands cheering on his favorite NBA stars.
Are these the actions of a person just hours after experiencing depression from mental illness caused by severe head trauma? We should all have exciting, event-filled and interesting days and nights.
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The dumbest story of the Brown striptease show so far has involved former NFL wide receiver Terrell Owens. Yep, the same guy who was one of the creators of the look-at-me, right-i-great? Club of large self-absorbed receivers. He invented large receivers stripping themselves to the waist in front of the cameras.
Owens, now 48, hasn’t played in the NFL for 11 years and is in the Professional Football Hall of Fame, says he would like to replace Brown on the Bucs’ roster. “I know I can do it,” Owens said on his podcast. “I feel like I can compete at a high level. »Stop laughing. Anything is possible in the NFL these days. Owens, after all, would make Mr. Perfect Tom Brady feel young.
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The Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball team saw tremendous growth in last Saturday’s 79-70 victory over New Mexico. The Pack won one game when point guard Grant Sherfield, who has carried his teammates on his back for the past two seasons, scored just two goals and scored just 10 points. Prior to last Saturday, the Pack was 0-2 when Sherfield, who has played 38 games for Nevada in his career, scored two goals or less in a game and 2-4 when Sherfield scored 10 points or less. So, yes, the Pack can win when Sheffield doesn’t fill out the stats sheet with points.
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Or did he do it? Sherfield may have only scored 10 points himself, but he was responsible for the most points of any player in the Pack against New Mexico. The 6-foot-2 point guard had 10 assists that led to 24 points, so he was directly responsible for 34 of the pack’s 79 points. His assists led to 3 points from Tre Coleman, Alem Huseinovic, Desmond Cambridge and Kenan Blackshear as well as layups or dunks for Will Baker (four), Coleman (one) and Cambridge (one). So maybe Sherfield blamed the team after all.
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We still have no idea what kind of attack new head coach Ken Wilson will lead next season for the Nevada Wolf Pack football team. Wilson, a career linebacker coach, announced the hiring of four defensive coaches this week, but no offensive coaches. The only offensive coach officially on the staff of the Pack is currently running backs coach Vai Taua, although Wilson is expected to hire Oregon offensive analyst Nate Costa as quarterbacks coach for the Pack.
The only former Oregon assistant Wilson apparently won’t hire is former Pack assistant Jim Mastro. Mastro, a longtime running back coach who coached with Wilson in Nevada, Washington and Oregon, recently turned down an offer as an assistant to the Miami Hurricanes (under the former coach- Oregon Chief Mario Cristobal) as he takes a year of training to stay home on the West Coast due to an undisclosed family illness.
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The name best known to Wolf Pack fans among Wilson’s new assistants is defensive co-coordinator Mike Bethea. Bethea played linebacker for the Pack (for linebacker coach Wilson) in 2008 and 2009. He made 29 tackles in 2008 in just nine games and 70 tackles in 13 games in 2009. Bethea was also a graduate assistant coach of the Pack. in 2010 and 2011. and has been a defensive coordinator at an NAIA (University of Ottawa, Arizona) school for the past four years. Bethea was also a graduate assistant in Washington state from 2013-2015 with Wilson as the Cougars linebacker coach.
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Bethea, who apparently bleeds silver and blue like Wilson, may well become the head coach of the Wolf Pack one day. After all, it’s no surprise that he’s a part of Wilson’s first team, given their long-standing relationship. Bethea, after all, was one of the pack leaders as a player and was always a favorite of Wilson and former pack trainer Chris Ault.
“I think Mike’s work ethic is great,” Ault said in August 2009. “And I think his attitude is even better. I like these components. And I know one thing. He will put it on the line for us.
After missing much of the second half of the 2008 season with a broken foot, Bethea said in 2009, “That (an injury) shows you how great to be out there, train and play. everyday, how special it is. I wish I had more years here. I talk to Coach Wilson about it all the time. He now gets those extra years in Nevada, thanks to Wilson.

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