As the Antonio Brown foot and helmet story repeatedly takes unexpected turns, it’s fair to wonder if some of the blame at this point should fall on his agent, Drew Rosenhaus.
The cryotherapy injury was a freak incident. Brown wasn’t even in the country when his feet were frostbitten, so Rosenhaus is in the clear on the medical mishap.
The helmet situation, however, might be a different story.
Rosenhaus should have seen the helmet problem coming. In fact, everyone involved should have seen it coming.
How did it get to the point where Brown was painting his expired Steelers helmet and apparently trying to sneak it past the Raiders equipment crew?
Had his agent quietly found the 2014 model of the Schutt AiR Advantage a month ago, Brown probably wouldn’t be in a losing battle with the league right now. If Rosenhaus would have understood the loophole that allowed Brown to wear a 2014 model of the helmet he prefers, it probably would have been much easier to slip the issue past the league.
Instead, Rosenhaus let AB take the lead on finding a new helmet and even announce his search for a helmet on social media.
The league has been a step ahead of AB for the past three weeks on the helmet debacle and the publicity around it is what’s killing Brown’s chances of wearing the helmet he wants. Rosenhaus should have been out in front of this one and he wasn’t.
Furthermore, communication between Rosenhaus and the Raiders is seemingly awful. Why else would general manager Mike Mayock have to call a press conference to publicly state the team’s position on Brown’s absence? Rosenhaus already knew about the Raiders frustration, so the only reason they would make the story public is if they believed Rosenhaus and Brown weren’t making enough effort to resolve the problem.
Now the Raiders have resorted to publicly communicating with AB and everyone understands the risk that comes with dealing with him in that fashion.
Rosenhaus responded to the Raiders’ frustration on Sunday night and said he has been working “very closely” with the team – a statement that seems hard to believe since the team never seems to know Brown’s status.
Good communication wouldn’t keep the Raiders constantly guessing. Good communication wouldn’t need the media’s help to pass along messages. Good communication wouldn’t have required Rosenhaus to fly to Napa with AB and escort him back to training camp.
Rosenhaus negotiated a great deal for AB five months ago, but it feels like a little foresight and better communication could have saved his client a lot of frustration over the past month.
twitter: @raidersbeat
