Antonio Brown Signs With New England Patriots and Fans Are Livid

Antonio Brown started his Saturday by being released by the Oakland Raiders, and now he has finished the day with a new contract in hand. Mr. Big Chest himself is now a member of the New England Patriots. He will be earning a sizable salary as part of a one-year deal and pairing with quarterback Tom Brady in order to lead this team back to the Super Bowl.

According to Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, this deal is worth up to $15 million and includes a $9 million signing bonus. This is critical for Brown considering that the Raiders voided the $30 million in guaranteed money due to conduct detrimental to the team. The Silver and Black didn’t pay their former receiver a single cent during his very brief tenure with the team, and now the Patriots will be reaping the reward. Of course, that all is dependent upon Brown fitting in with this locker room and behaving.

Obviously, Brown’s Charlie Sheen-esque public meltdown and ensuing dramatic release from the Raiders certainly drew wild reactions on social media. Adding in the fact that he is being rewarded for his behavior, and fans are understandably angry as week one approaches.

As fans of the Raiders, and the NFL in general, are learning, this is a league where talent trumps all. High character and off-the-field behavior do not matter quite as much as the ability to score touchdowns on a regular basis. In Brown’s case, he led the league with 15 touchdowns in 2018 and will continue to see opportunities in the NFL, no matter what he does.

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Andrew Siciliano, the host of the Red Zone Channel on DirecTV doesn’t have a figurative horse in the race when NFL games begin. As the man who watches literally every single game of the season, he doesn’t really have time to build up an appreciation for any one specific team. However, Siciliano isn’t overjoyed about the latest updates surrounding Antonio Brown. In fact, he believes that this sends a terrible message to young kids. In the NFL, you can allegedly threaten your boss with physical violence, use a racial slur, illegally record audio from your other boss, and skip as many days of work as you want. In the end, you will still be given a huge amount of cash. 

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There are many fans of the Oakland Raiders that are infinitely angry about the Antonio Brown era in the Bay Area, while there are many others that can’t believe the New England Patriots just got better. The team currently has top wide receivers on the roster in Demaryius Thomas, Julian Edelman, and Josh Gordon. Now, they are getting Antonio Brown, a man who led the league with 15 touchdowns in 2018 and has topped 100 receptions in a season six different times. 

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All offseason, Antonio Brown has consistently been tied to the description of “clown.” Pittsburgh Steelers fans and other haters of the Oakland Raiders used images of a clown to describe the receiver at every turn. Now, Brown is getting the last laugh after forcing his way out of another city and landing with the Super Bowl favorite New England Patriots. Is this just his form of revenge for all of the comments on social media? 

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With the New England Patriots signing Antonio Brown on Saturday afternoon, social media was immediately filled with cries about a cheating scandal. This team has been fined and punished by the NFL for deflated footballs and filming opponents’ defensive signals, so they are forever known as cheaters by fans of other teams. This situation with Brown is no different. There is a prevailing belief that this was all an intricate scheme to get the talented receiver from the Pittsburgh Steelers and onto the Patriots. The Raiders were just the unwitting accomplices. 

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How do the Patriots keep stocking the roster with supremely talented players that can make a difference on every single play? Bill Belichick and company have found a way to get Josh Gordon and so many other stars on the roster when no other team is interested, and they use these stars to keep stacking up wins and appearances in the Super Bowl. It’s absurd to some football fans, and they can’t believe that this keeps happening.

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Some view this move to sign Antonio Brown as tampering, which could lead to an NFL investigation. Others, however, simply believe that the league isn’t as “unscripted” as expected. In fact, they think that professional football is more akin to professional wrestling. Writers are actually the ones crafting the storylines in which Andrew Luck retires early, Antonio Brown forces his way out of the Bay Area, and the Patriots ultimately win a seventh Super Bowl of the Tom Brady era. 

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Red Zone Channel host Andrew Siciliano had strong words after news broke that Antonio Brown was signing with the New England Patriots, but he was not the only one. There are thousands of fans that are very angry about the fact that Brown is being rewarded by another team for misbehaving enough to lose $30 million in guaranteed money. Football players have been viewed as role models in the past, but he does not want this to be the case for Antonio Brown. 

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Is there a conspiracy afoot in the NFL? As of late Saturday afternoon, the prevailing belief is that this controversy in Oakland was actually a long-con put on by Antonio Brown and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus. According to many fans of the NFL, there was no way that the Pittsburgh Steelers were going to trade someone of Brown’s talent to the defending Super Bowl champions, so they had to trick them into making this move. Getting Brown to the Raiders via trade was step one. After that, the Patriots and Rosenhaus simply had to say the code phrase that kickstarted their sleeper agent. 

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Whether or not this move was planned from the start or simply came naturally does not matter to certain fans. They just want to see Antonio Brown pay for his actions. There are many believers in karma, which is that you will pay for your actions. If you do terrible things in life, you will only experience heartache in return. If you treat everyone kindly, however, good things will happen. So far, Brown is being rewarded for his negative deeds, and fans are extremely angry about that fact. 

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Despite being forced to release Antonio Brown after a hectic few days, Jon Gruden was still willing to step up to the podium and explain how his former wide receiver is actually “a good guy. He’s misunderstood by a lot of people but he’s a good guy, he’s a great player, and I hope he gets what he’s looking for.” Well, the Raiders fans disagree about whether or not Brown is actually a good person, but they are tired of talking about the story. It’s time to go play football and try to win the AFC West.