Antonio Brown Apologizes to Patriots, Fans Doubt the Authenticity

Tuesday morning, former New England Patriots wide receiver Antonio Brown turned heads when he sent an apology to his previous team on both Instagram and Twitter. He included a photo of himself and Tom Brady hugging and said that he was sorry for the drama and bad media.

“Mr.Kraft I apologize sincerely to you and your organization! All I wanted to be was an asset to the organization; sorry for the bad media and the drama ! Thank you sincerely AB,” Brown wrote on social media.

As expected, this message was met with a considerable range of responses. There were certainly some fans that felt this apology was exactly what Brown needed to make his way back into the NFL, which prompted them to beg the Patriots to bring him back onto the roster to fix the struggling offense.

Other fans, however, thought that there were some factors of this apology that didn’t quite make sense. Specifically, they thought that it was too well-written to have come from the thumbs of Brown. There was an overwhelming number of responses that actually alleged that the receiver had brought in a “ghostwriter” to pen this response in order to better improve his chances of a return.

(Photo Credit: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe/Getty)

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One of the first responses to Brown’s post on Twitter expressed complete shock at the fact that he used certain punctuation marks as they were originally intended. His ability to properly use periods, commas, and other punctuation marks has long been a point of discussion on social media. Seeing this recent message automatically made them doubt that Brown has truly written it. 

Of course, there were some fans that simply thought this use of punctuation marks was just a sign that the English class is paying off. There was an infamous moment in recent months when Brown asked his fans to proofread his English paper so he could get a good grade. However, his post on Twitter was largely criticized for its lack of proper punctuation and grammar. 

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Did Antonio Brown truly write this post on social media, or did someone take care of it for him? There were plenty of discussions about this exact topic on Tuesday morning as many tried to predict the origin of the apology. Specifically, what prompted this apology considering that Brown had previously declared that he was done playing in the NFL for the second time this season. 

For many fans, there was a conspiracy theory that the Patriots actually reached out to Brown and told him to post the message. They believe that the team wants him back, so they decided to dictate this message to make a reunion possible. 

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While there were many football fans on social media that believed the Patriots had reached out to Brown and told him to write this apology, there were others that thought the decision had been made by someone else. In fact, they were of the mindset that Brown was receiving input from someone very close to him. 

Drew Rosenhaus, who represents Antonio Brown, has been featured on sports shows many times throughout this saga. Whenever the receiver declared that he was done with football, Rosenhaus would be tasked with saying that Brown still wants to play in the NFL and has a “robust” market. 

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Whether or not Antonio Brown feels true remorse for his actions is irrelevant to many football fans, and they believe that the Patriots feel the same way. Specifically, there was an incident early in the season in which Brown went on a Twitter rant about other sports personalities having allegations of sexual misconduct and being allowed to keep their jobs. 

One of these messages was directed at Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who was facing two charges of solicitation of prostitution in the spring. Brown later deleted this post on Twitter, but it was forever immortalized by thousands of users on social media. 

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Antonio Brown certainly seemed remorseful for his actions on Tuesday morning, but the fans on social media wanted to take a “wait-and-see” approach. There have been many instances over the past few months in which Brown has posted something either positive or negative on Twitter only to completely contradict himself hours or days later.

There were many NFL fans that mentioned Brown declaring that he is done with the NFL multiple times since his release from the Patriots but changing his mind shortly after. This led them to believe that the apologetic posts will only set the stage for another angry rant on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. 

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As expected, there were many Patriots fans that wanted Brown to make a return to New England after seeing this post on social media, but there were others that simply didn’t view it as an authentic gesture. Instead, they simply reiterated a message that has been swirling on social media for months. Football fans don’t believe that they can trust anything Brown says or posts.

To further their points, there were many users on social media that actually made guesses about the next message posted by Brown. Would he apologize to the Oakland Raiders or Pittsburgh Steelers, or would he simply attack the Patriots once again? 

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Whether or not the message was written by Brown didn’t ultimately matter to many NFL fans. They viewed the sentence structure and use of punctuation as explicit evidence that he was not involved in composing these posts on social media. With that discussion over, they instead wanted to figure the reasoning. 

Does Antonio Brown truly want to be back in the NFL, or does he have some outside circumstances that are playing a role in this apology? He previously stated to NFL reporter Jeff Darlington that he doesn’t need the game because he has so much money. However, flying around in a private jet is not the most inexpensive method of travel. 

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Did Antonio Brown write this post on social media, or was it created by his agent? That likely won’t matter, in the long run, considering that the message is still out in the open for everyone to read. However, there are some football fans that believe the timing simply won’t help Brown’s case.

In the opinions of many, the former Patriots wide receiver could have saved himself some heartache and unneeded drama if he had made this apology in the days following his release. Instead, he posted messages that criticized the Patriots, as well as the NFL.