Steelers' Antonio Brown Shared His Controversial Belief That The NFL Conspired To Keep Him And Tom Brady Apart

The Pittsburgh Steelers traded Antonio Brown to the then-Oakland Raiders after growing unrest in 2019. Brown was reportedly upset that he lost the team MVP award to JuJu Smith-Schuster in 2018. He had failed to show up for team activities and argued with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers have almost always known when it was time to cut the cord with a certain player, and even still, no one could imagine the wild ride Brown was about to take the entire NFL on.  

Brown was essentially only with the Raiders for the preseason period. The trade occurred in March 2019, but by September 2019, he was on the New England Patriots roster. Brown is now speaking out about that time period, saying he and quarterback Tom Brady were forced to engineer a plan to work together behind the backs of NFL bigwigs. Brown believes the NFL wanted him to stay with the Steelers, so they thwarted his efforts to partner with Brady. 

Recently, the wide receiver appeared on Jason Whitlock's Fearless podcast and talked about his NFL journey. He told Whitlock that he and Brady surprised each other a bit when he first joined the Patriots. Brown said that when you only see someone on TV, you have a preconceived notion about them, but when they got to work together in Foxboro, they developed the "ultimate respect," and Brady would say how special Brown was. 

"'Yo, this kid AB is a genius man. You understand the plays, got a lot of energy, want to win, know how to win.' I feel like that was the start to something great. That was like when you first meet someone and you realize you met your partner in crime. I got a lot of intangibles like this person, they work hard, they take it serious, it's a match made in heaven."

He described playing that one game in 2019 with Brady as "the most amazing thing." Brown felt that he and Brady understood each other, but the league had different plans for them and wouldn't let Brown write his own script. 

Brown said Brady wanted to play with him too, how could he resist? He led the team to victory over the Miami Dolphins in the one game they played together as Patriots. Brown makes Whitlock pull up the stats from that game, bragging about his impact. Whitlock demurs, but Brown had four receptions for 56 yards and one touchdown. It was a solid performance, but not the barn burner he implied. 

"AB led the team. Then the next week, I figured out that the NFL don't want me to win with Tom Brady, especially not on the Patriots. Know why? 'Cause I'm a Steeler. So they released me. Me and Tom Brady, we make an educated plan to what we got to do to get me back to the league in 2020."

Brown said that he and Brady plotted to go to Tampa in 2020. He said the Patriots paid him $5 million to play that one game against the Dolphins, which shows that they were worried Brown would win a Super Bowl in New England. 

Brown cites Randy Moss as supporting documentation. He said the league didn't want Moss winning a Super Bowl with Brady either, which is why they lost to the New York Giants. Nothing is coincidental. He believes the NFL was punishing him for attempting to make his own decisions. Whitlock reminds him that the Patriots cut him because a woman came forward with misconduct allegations. That, Brown said, further supports his argument that it was all part of the NFL's plan. 

Steelers' Antonio Brown's Conflicting Tales

While Brown gushed on and on about Brady and the Super Bowl they did end up winning at the end of 2020, he also spoke highly of others. That included Roethlisberger, his first NFL quarterback. 

He implied that being linked to the Steelers somehow held him back, even stating he left Pittsburgh because he knew they would never win a Super Bowl. Then he turned around and spoke highly of Roethlisberger and how he and Head Coach Mike Tomlin helped Brown find his footing in the league. He said he sees Roethlisberger as a big brother and Tomlin as a father figure, while also citing in the same interview that the Steelers had a toxic culture in the locker room.

Brown talks openly now about being a "Steeler for life," which makes some of his stories difficult to understand. For the most part, Steelers fans were rooting for his success and believed he and the rest of the team could win a Super Bowl. His conflicting tales and back-and-forth ideas make it hard to believe what he says.