If you have heard it once, you’ve heard it a dozen times from none other than Tom Brady the magnificent, football is the consummate team game. So why is it, do you suppose, that one of the more important parts of the Buccaneers seems to think that there is an I in team?
Yes, we’re talking about Antonio Brown. And, if you think about the adage of one bad apple, you can see that this bad apple has spoiled two bunches.
At first glance, one would assume that this is just a stupid thing to do. But given the prime antagonist, it has to go down as among the stranger things he’s ever done. Already under the microscope for his behavior, did Brown really think that he could get away with the forged documents. Didn’t he realize that the Feds have a database on who has been vaccinated, and therefore, who hasn’t been vaccinated? Did he somehow forget that acquaintances past would come back to haunt him?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a team. They should act as a team, and if that means they should all go get Bucco Bruce tattoos, then you go get your Bucco Bruce tattoo complete with knife and eye twinkle. The thing you don’t do is sell out the team, and the coaches. That’s just exactly what AB did.
Was it self-serving? Was it a snub to the team and Buccaneer management? Of course, it was. And, consequently, the league, as it should have, took care of the issue. Three weeks in the dog house. But what hurts even more than some unwanted time off, is the damage this dumb action has caused among his fellow players and coaches. And, further, not just on him but on Mike Edwards too.
At some level, one can almost forgive Edwards. Really, he’s still relatively new to the NFL and may also be against the vaccine. But the thing here is more selling out the team.
If you are against the vaccine, then be against the vaccine. Don’t take the jab. But also, don’t provide bogus proof of vaccination to the Bucs management and move on as if everything is Kosher.
It’s pretty much a sure thing that those three are not alone. If AB can find a forged card, there are others in the NFL that have enough cash to do the same thing. Perhaps, as Bruce Arians suggested, the NFL ought to take a deeper look.
Not wanting to take the vaccine has an even more prominent fanboy in Rogers. He is catching grief because he may have misrepresented whether he had a shot or not. He may have misled some people, but when it came down to it, he owned up after he was caught.
I doubt AB would have owned up to it. He was in the mess lock, stock, and barrel.
That AB didn’t get the vaccine doesn’t surprise anyone. It’s in his nature to be that way. But at what point is he ever going to start realizing that dumb things like this put him in Dutch with management and reopen the issues that he has spent the past two seasons patching up. In the end, players, coaches, and fans all come to the same conclusion: No change in AB.
In all likelihood, the team takes him back in three weeks and moves on with the season. But somewhere deep down in one’s guts, there will always be that little bit of doubt when dealing with Antonio.