Sample text from Jenkins: "For all of the NFL’s well-intentioned efforts on mental health, the Buccaneers have betrayed just how much of an archaic, body-commodifying, ranchers-and-cattle mentality can persist where decent human feeling should be.... Who on the Bucs didn’t know Brown had a tangled personality, demons stemming from indigence as a kid, that he had a pile of legal issues, trouble conforming and a penchant for self-sabotage?"
January 5, 2022
"Sorry Sally but Brown is an entitled spoiled millionaire who has been a cancer in every locker room he has been in. There is absolutely no reason for a professional athlete to conduct himself in the manner Brown did."
That's the top-rated comment on "Antonio Brown put his pain on display for all to see. Instead of helping, the Bucs cut bait" by Sally Jenkins (WaPo)
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The Buccaneers are in the business of winning football games. That's why they have Brady and the Gronk on the team. Anything that distracts from the goal of winning becomes a liability. That's what happened here.
Are we not entertained?
Best line I ever heard from a sportscaster was Ralph Barbieri.
I forgot who it was (maybe Barry Bonds?), but he called him a 'cancer in the locker room, with all due respect to cancer.'
Brutal : )
Yeah, we could all see how incapacitatingly sore his ankle was as he walked, pranced, jumped and ran shirtless off the field...
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a business, not a psychiatry clinic.
Seeing the crazed look of the shirtless Brown on the sidelines, it reminded me of the cra cra shirtless Achilles keto stroganoff cooking show he posted a while back.
I feel sorry for all victims of mental illness.
There are some who think - with justifiable reason - that Brown may have suffered a serious head (brain) injury when he was hit years ago by Vontaze Burfict. A counterargument is presented in Deadspin (I know, but still)
https://deadspin.com/stop-blaming-vontaze-burfict-for-antonio-browns-idiocy-1848302571
I think Tom Brady was right. "That's obviously a difficult situation," Brady said. "We all love him and care about him deeply. I think everyone should be compassionate and empathetic toward some very difficult things."
From what I've read, Antonio Brown was a few plays short of 3 milestones, each worth $333,333 per his contract. Ask yourself how would you feel about needing only 1 TD reception worth $333,333 and not getting it while the team was currently losing. I'm not saying his behavior was appropriate nor that he might not have achieved those milestones had he stayed in the game. But the context does explain Brown's emotions at the time. People have done far worse for $300,000 dollars, and had he met all three milestones, it would be a $1 million dollar bonus day. Virginia Guiffre allegedly had sex with Prince Andrew three times for only half that much.
He was using a fake vaccine passport. Isn’t that enough of a crime for this journ-O-lister?
Daughter of one of my all time favorite sports writers and authors, Dan Jenkins. He's dead, but if stll alive he would be cancelled for sure.
Well, he came with a warning label.
"There is absolutely no reason for a professional athlete to conduct himself in the manner Brown did."
The commenter is wrong.
There are a lot of reasons to conduct yourself in this manner.
They aren't good and acting like this does not end well for people like Brown. But they are not just trying to destroy themselves.
Howard said...
Seeing the crazed look of the shirtless Brown on the sidelines, it reminded me of the cra cra shirtless Achilles keto stroganoff cooking show he posted a while back.
I feel sorry for all victims of mental illness.
Limited people tend to describe things beyond their grasp by mislabeling them.
The NFL has an entire array of programs to assist players with personal issues. From domestic, health and diet, finance, mental health, and addiction. All confidential.
I respected Sally for her work in debunking the NFL/Goodell bogus "Deflate-gate" saga, but this is garbage. That is, based on this excerpt. Paywalled.
The NFL locker is no different from any other place of work. No one says "John of the 2nd floor is a helluva worker, but has issues. It's incumbent on everyone in the building to fix him."
No personal responsibility because.....It Takes a Village!
How about some empathy for the teammates, coaches, owners and fans who he walked out on?
Aside from the team extending health coverage with a mental health benefit, for example, what is Jenkins saying should be the team's obligation?
Browndog said...
The NFL has an entire array of programs to assist players with personal issues. From domestic, health and diet, finance, mental health, and addiction. All confidential.
I respected Sally for her work in debunking the NFL/Goodell bogus "Deflate-gate" saga, but this is garbage. That is, based on this excerpt. Paywalled.
The NFL locker is no different from any other place of work. No one says "John of the 2nd floor is a helluva worker, but has issues. It's incumbent on everyone in the building to fix him."
No personal responsibility because.....It Takes a Village!
These situations are complex.
But journalists in general are the dumbest professionals, outside of teachers, in any population and they can't really deal with complexity.
When they stuck to reporting facts and things people say they did OK.
But at some point they decided everyone else should know how limited they are and they started adding their opinions.
"The NFL locker is no different from any other place of work."
Except for the fact that out of three hundred and thirty million Americans, there is a minuscule number of guys with Brown's levels of skill and talent. As opposed to the number of guys qualified to drive a package delivery truck, or whatever.
Maybe take his millions away and he will recover.
If you watch the video, one of Brown's teammates tries to stop him from ripping his football jersey off. Brown won't be stopped.
You can only help someone who wants help.
WaPo writers must have a morning meeting to discuss who might be the most irredeemable person for them to write an "aksually..." piece.
I await her attempts to contectualize and (fail to) resurrect the reputations of the Cuomo brothers, Ghislane Maxwell/Jeffrey Epsten, and the ultimate white whale, DJT.
I feel sorry for all victims of mental illness.
Self-pity is not pretty.
On the other hand, I am absolutely shocked that there is an overly indulged professional athlete doing stupid things. That has never happened before.
I was today year's old when I learned that football is a violent sport and that teams prioritize winning above all else. Thank you, Sally.
Limited blogger said...
If you watch the video, one of Brown's teammates tries to stop him from ripping his football jersey off. Brown won't be stopped.
You can only help someone who wants help.
Is it help?
Or society suppressing the incompatible?
The first thing you have to do is convince the person you actually understand what they feel and are not just trying to force them to conform.
A lot of people right now confuse forcing submission with "help."
I do think Brown is being very selfish and this is more calculated than people give him credit for. He has millions in the bank from previous contracts and losing this contract doesn't really affect him much.
He is getting some much needed attention.
But from his point of view he was too injured to play and he thought the coach was just trying to get him hurt.
And calling this "mental illness" does a disservice to people who have actual mental illness.
Maynard said...
I feel sorry for all victims of mental illness.
Self-pity is not pretty.
On the other hand, I am absolutely shocked that there is an overly indulged professional athlete doing stupid things. That has never happened before.
I would posit that it was selfish.
Not stupid.
Sally Jenkins confuses two entirely separate things: what the team/league can do to help Antonio Brown with this obvious mental problems, and the need to cut a player from the roster when he quits in the middle of the game. Jenkins very likely does not know what the NFL or team might do to help Brown with his problems. But keep a player on the roster who has already -literally- run out on his teammates in the middle of a game? Jenkins doesn't seem to understand the difference between the company's business and its health plan.
Not sure it's true he's always been a cancer. When he got out of college (Central Michigan, which, for those not paying attention, isn't a football powerhouse) he was drafted 195th, something like the 27th receiver drafted. He had a lot to prove, and he pretty much kept his head down, worked hard, and got a lot better in his early years for the Steelers. His "antics" were things like running backwards from the 20 yard line to score a touchdown.
It wasn't until much later that he became a prima donna and, then, really wacko.
Blogger Achilles said...
Limited people tend to describe things beyond their grasp by mislabeling them.
Democrats are: a) Fascist, b) Marxist, c) just evil people...
You mean shit like that?
You starting to get this new "mental health" sports topic?
Gymnast Simone Biles
Tennis player Naomi Osaka
Antonio Brown
All athletes "of color" who quit, to one degree or another, and all heralded as victims, if not heroes, by corporate media. (Biles: TIME Athlete of the Year)
Get ready for more. This is a new woke toy and they're not going to be putting it down.
Howard: "Democrats are: a) Fascist, b) Marxist, c) just evil people..."
LOL
Howard thinks a), b) and c) are mutually exclusive!
Thus Howard helpfully provides an immediate response which actually proves Achilles earlier point (about Howard), which was:
"Limited people tend to describe things beyond their grasp by mislabeling them."
The funniest part: Howard will now double and triple down on this.
Lets see what happens now....
This story is even better if you imagine that "Sally" and "Brown" are the Peanuts characters, and that when Charlie Brown finally kicked the football, he was good enough to get to the NFL.
I had an employee with an obvious problem with alcohol. I went to HR and they told me too ignore it. Too many ADA problems if we acknowledged it. We had an outside service as part of our employee benefits program which included a 24/7 hotline for such things , but I could not refer him to it. He had to call it on his own.
Most big companies have programs like this. ADA actually made it harder for us to help him. I retired almost 20 years ago, so maybe it's changed. But I doubt it.
You want Hall of Fame crazy athlete? Jimmy "Fear Strikes Out" Piersall. Crazy mother.
Howard said...
Blogger Achilles said...
Limited people tend to describe things beyond their grasp by mislabeling them.
Democrats are: a) Fascist, b) Marxist, c) just evil people...
You mean shit like that?
You left out d) violent, e) controlling, and f) racist.
g) hypocritical, h( gullible
One corporate adage for employees who were, for one reason or another, "problem children" was "Shine 'em up and Ship 'em out". Didn't solve the "problem child" issue, but it did make that employee someone else's headache.
There's no doubt that Antonio Brown is--or at least was--a very talented receiver. But this last stunt would make it very difficult for the team to keep him and try to get some trade value.
Maybe some other team will take him on--maybe not. See Kaepernick, Colin.
i) censorious j) concealing k) dishonest
A fair amount of pain and occasional head trauma are a wide receivers lot in life. It's a stressful job. Go up for a pass and you know with absolute certainty that someone with velocity and mass is going to violently collide with you in the near future. Such a job would drive me crazy. I have more sympathy for wide receivers than for tennis players. Tennis players occasionally pull a muscle and look how they carry on. If I were a gifted athlete, I would prefer to make my millions in tennis or golf. Curling is good too, but there's not much money in it.....The quote says he was "indigent" growing up. I don't know if that's quite true. He was the owner of an athletically gifted body. Kids with that kind of ability get treated pretty good. Maybe not by their parents but by their peers and coaches.
Everything Sally Jenkins said sounds true. But she left one thing out. The Tampa Bay Bucs are not in the business of mental health care no more than the Washington Post is. The Bucs have one job: put a competitive team on the field, and win. Anything less than that means people, multiple people, coaches, players, staff, stadium employees, parking lot attendants, all stand to lose their jobs. (see Detroit Lions history for reference).
The NFL is an incredibly intense, draining, difficult world. The season is unforgiving and this is not new to Antonio Brown. He needs help. The Bucs are not the place to go for the help he needs. He's got people around him- friends- who have seemingly not helped him a bit. Perhaps some of the Bucs teammates can, on their own, try to point him in a direction. But it's not up to the Bucs to do so.
And frankly, I don't know anyone with mental health needs to looks to an NFL team as their go-to for help. In fact, I don't know why anyone would look to their employer for mental health help in any situation.
Too many sports journalists have taken the stance that professional sports is a social justice forum or fountain of altruism. It is none of those. It is a profession, populated by the very best and skilled people in their particular fields, none of which have anything to do with mental health.
I have been a Steeler fan for decades. When AB came on to the scene in Pittsburgh, he was your typical prima donna wide receiver (most prima donnas in the NFL appear to be at the wide receiver position). When he became a star, Coach Tomlin became an enabler. Fifteen yard penalties were the norm with Brown. The best antic was Brown celebrating a touchdown by jumping into the goalposts spread eagle, his gonads leading the way. Tomlin looked the other way until it was over the top. Downhill ever since.
ranchers-and-cattle mentality can persist where decent human feeling should be....
Sally has never played football.
.....and certainly Sally has NEVER won a football game.
"Tennis players occasionally pull a muscle and look how they carry on."
My favorite is soccer "injuries."
At law firms, the industry I know, the pandemic has accelerated attention to mental health as part of physical health. Several prominent suicides in the industry at the outset of the pandemic contributed to focusing things. The NFL is not interested in the focus of something like a tremendous double TB comeback being diverted to something like a formerly tremendous player melting down on camera.
Leland,
The issue arose when Brown refused to go back into the game - he took himself out, claiming an ankle injury, and the coach insisted he go back in or be cut.
The guy has millions. Surely he can arrange for his own mental healthcare.
>The issue arose when Brown refused to go back into the game - he took himself out, claiming an ankle injury, and the<
It bears repeating: Watch him cavorting - jumping jacks, in fact - in the end zone on his way out, just to get an indicator of how much of an ankle problem he was having. Which is to say - boolshit.
Brown had the opportunity for three bonuses, which added up to 1 million Dollars. He had the rest of the game with the Jets and one more regular season game to make the (well within reach) numbers. What the commentators were saying at the game, was that he walked out when his coach insisted he play. It was Brown who didn't want to get back in and earn his $ million bonus--supposedly due to an ankle injury. Such injury not much in evidence as he pranced around, shirtless, in the end-zone.
As alluded to above, the AB meltdown detracted and distracted from the NY Jets meltdown.
Achilles said...
I would posit that it was selfish.
Not stupid.
Agreed. It's past time we stopped trying to excuse shitty behavior by declaring it mental illness.
The teammate who tried to convince him not to leave was Mike Evans, another very talented wide receiver.
Interestingly, Brown has not yet been cut by the Bucs. Perhaps, they are just being cautious. But some cynical sports fans think that Brown would be picked up by a competing team and the Bucs are keeping that from happening by keeping him on the roster.
>demons stemming from indigence as a kid<
That's it! For sure. Don't all the millions of people who were poor kids act like that jerk did?
It's obvious NFL teams will bend to any kind of behavior, on or off the field, if you can ball. AB's exit may have closed out the Bucs, but he'll likely get picked up at some point somewhere.
"cut bait"? Not sure that's being used correctly.
This is the thanks that Brady and the Bucs get for giving this guy a new lease on NFL life when everyone else rejected him.
Sigh. The Bucs hired AB for one reason…he’s very talented, and Tom Brady puts winning above everything. It’s cost/benefit. If he helps get you to the Super Bowl, you can put up with a lot. Including forged vaccination cards and ongoing legal/criminal problems. We can all assume there are mental health issues at play…like bi-polar disorder or something that can and should be treated. But, the reality might be he’s “simply” a narcissistic asshole, which isn’t treatable. Stop trying to find a victim here. Certainly The Bucs aren’t. But neither is AB. NFL players aren’t poor, little children taken advantage of by the big, bad NFL. Frankly, if Colin Kaepernick had as much talent as AB, we’d still be watching him kneel. Again..cost/benefit.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank AB for his behavior. Pro football is incredibly boring in a Roger Goodell corporate lawyer sort of way.
Since when was blowing off steam a sign of mental illness?
Like many athletes he is a pampered little clown.
We need clowns every now now and then to relieve our boredom.
There are no demons that stem from indigence. Those demons are conceived in character.
Later that night, after he abandoned his teammates, AB showed up at the Barclay Center for an NBA Nets game and he was welcomed with cheers and applause. Link
For someone who seems incapable of gaging the impact of his behavior up close, the ambivalent message from the people AB believes are the deciders of his fate, it must seem like a war he has to wage to survive. It's just sad.
Reminds me of Trump a little bit.
It appears that nowhere does it say that AB has to want to seek treatment.
Or do you really want your employer to decide on what health care you receive?
Trying to recall the type of passion that Sally Jenkins put into this piece when Rosanne Barr was fired from the TV show she had created and then brought back to life. Fired for a tweet.
"Agreed. It's past time we stopped trying to excuse shitty behavior by declaring it mental illness."
Embrace the concept of "and." Shitty behavior and mental illness are not necessarily mutually exclusive traits. Take a Masshole like Howard (please!) Sometimes a Masshole is just a Masshole because he's both mentally ill AND has a crap personality. In fact, if you look up Masshole in your Funk and Wagnalls, you'll find a picture of what appears at first glance to be Howard, but on closer examination is just a pile of shit with an uncanny resemblance to Howard. Just be careful to avoid stepping in the "Howard" though. Shit is easier to get off your shoe.
Brady: Antonio! I knew I'd bump into you somewhere. I want answers, cherry cakes.
Brown: I love you.
Brady: Wrong answer. I quit the Sap-of-the-Month Club long ago. Angel drawers, you've got one last chance. Not one of those
Major-League-Baseball-Steve-Howe last chances.
>>if Colin Kaepernick had as much talent as AB, we’d still be watching him kneel.
As Tonto once said... "What's this 'we' shit, white man?"
AB played one game, I believe, for the Patriots at the same time some domestic issues popped up about him. Bob Kraft et al sent him packing. No team should be enabling him. This is a mark against Brady, I think. He always wanted to play with AB but should have been wiser about this, as should the others in Bucs management. They likely bent to Brady’s pleas - purely my guess.
>>This is a mark against Brady, I think. He always wanted to play with AB but should have been wiser about this, as should the others in Bucs management.
The Bucs gave AB his 7th last chance. It will be interesting to see who gives him his 8th.
There is a known connection between disruptive behavior and frontal lobe injury. The thing is, we don't do involuntary commitment until someone gets hurt or killed. Asking people with mental health problems or brain injuries to get themselves help is an exercise in futility.
“"cut bait"? Not sure that's being used correctly.”
As I understand there are two ways to fulfill your obligations, you may fish or you may cut bait. If the team was cutting bait then they were doing all that could be expected and are blameless.
Or do you really want your employer to decide on what health care you receive?
The people I know who've been fired for refusing the jab already know the answer to that.
I don't know the particulars. But from a standpoint of not knowing the particulars - Brown looks like a big baby who refuses to get a grip and grow up.
Maynard 12:29
That's so true.
that's what I thought when it happened. I thought - 'cool - some excitement for a change.
I know the ladies would be fine if one of the hunky futbol players decided to strip naked in protest of their inner demons.
Leftnoids:
Mon-Wed-Fri:
"Health care is a right!"
Tues-Thurs-Sat:
"You MUST comply with our health care mandates!"
"Or do you really want your employer to decide on what health care you receive?"
****************
Leftnoids:
Mon-Wed-Fri:
"Health care is a right!"
Tues-Thurs-Sat:
"You MUST comply with OUR health care mandates!"
"DanTheMan said...
>>This is a mark against Brady, I think. He always wanted to play with AB but should have been wiser about this, as should the others in Bucs management.
The Bucs gave AB his 7th last chance. It will be interesting to see who gives him his 8th.
1/5/22, 2:24 PM"
My info might be off but I seem to remember that the Patriots signed AB a few years ago to fill out the receiving corps for Brady and that didn't work out any differently. AB had a huge meltdown of some sort and they cut him.
I'm with DanTheMan on this re Brady. Fool me once....
Brown can be self-disciplined enough to become an NFL player, right?
I did not realize that the NFL was in the business of providing psychiatric services. Then again, I thought they were a football league but apparently their business model is woke-ism and shoveling money at the incompetence that is Roger Goodell. Oh well.
Solving serious mental health issues while also playing in front of millions of fans every week is not a wise strategy. I’d argue they the Bucs did the best thing they could for Brown - they freed him from the weekly spotlight so he can get some real help. It could have been selfish to keep him employed when he’s suffering and battling his condition.
He also has his former millionaire teammates. If they care about him, they’ll help. But he doesn’t need to be on an NFL roster and subject to all that pressure in his condition.
Frankly, Sally seems to understand the true meaning of empathy.
Brown's "legal issues" include charges of sexual assault by two different women, which are being investigated very, very slowly by the NFL. He settled with one of the accusers, his former trainer, in April.
For 2 seasons I have been saying that the obvious choice of a new name for the Washington Football Team is "The Skins," (harking back to the times we all played pickup football as the shirts v. the skins.) Assuming WFT management has seen the light, Brown is now a natural fit for that team.
So now we're back to using cancer as a metaphor?
When they cancelled Mailer, you knew Sontag was next.
Man who can run fast and catch a football has problems at work. Okey Dokey.
Seriously, when did WR get labeled as "Gifted athletes"? like most football players their skills are very limited. Receivers - run fast and catch a football. Running backs - be big fast and hard to tackle. Defense? Knock people down. Offensive Line - block people.
Probably the only great athelete on a NFL Football team is the QB - who has to run/pass and call audibles.
"instead of helping him"
It's not the Buc's job to help him.
It's his job to play football for them and not act like a maniac.
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