TAMPA, Fla. — Fresh off his release from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, wide receiver Antonio Brown had a lot to say Friday, airing out his frustrations on everything from how the Buccaneers handled his ankle injury on Sunday to his relationship with Tom Brady being based on a shared interest in winning.
“To me, a friend is someone who’s got your back,” Brown said on the “Full Send Podcast” on Friday. “Not everybody in sports is going to be your friend. Tom Brady’s my friend why? Because I’m a good football player. He needs me to play football. People have different meanings of what friendship is.”
Brown’s comments about Brady were a sharp deviation from what he has said in the past, likening the seven-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback to a “big brother” and calling him a “role model” after Brady twice invited Brown to move in with him, first with the New England Patriots and then in Tampa Bay.
“I mean, you can’t really expect anyone to be your friend in the business of football,” Brown said in a separate interview Friday on “Tapped In Daily” on Clubhouse. “The game is football but our business is winning. Me and Tom Brady have something in common with winners. We like winning. We like to compete. We like to be the best. So we got that in common. That’s what makes me want to be around him, that’s what makes us play together, that’s what makes us jell, that brings out greatness.”
Brady has vouched for Brown on multiple occasions amid criticism of the wide receiver, who missed 11 games due to suspension over the past two seasons. Prior to signing with the Bucs in October 2020, Brown was suspended for eight games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy after pleading no contest to burglary and assault charges and receiving two years’ probation for his role in a clash with the driver of a moving-company truck driver. Brown also had been the subject of an NFL investigation following an accusation of sexual misconduct at his home by an artist who was…
Source : espn
