You want the truth?
Sometimes we can’t handle the truth.
Not every story has a villain; not every story has a hero. And mostly likely the Antonio Brown saga of the past week had neither.
Was the original story a fabrication by NFL Network’s Mike Silver?
No, not saying that. There were surely accurate details in Silver’s report – at least in the eyes of whomever conveyed the story to him.
Obviously, Silver didn’t get his story from Mark Davis, Mike Mayock, or Jon Gruden. And truthfully, it doesn’t really matter what some of the others in the building think of Brown. Of course there are people working with AB that don’t like the way he goes about business. That isn’t going to change anytime soon.
At the same time, there was definitely something straining the Raiders and Brown in recent days or both sides would have squashed the story publicly. But the Raiders and Brown were both eerily quiet over the past week. If everyone had been on the same page, the reported story would have been very easily discredited.
If Brown’s story was bulletproof, he wouldn’t have needed his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, to fly into Oakland with him and there had to be a reason why Brown didn’t defended himself on social media.
When does he ever not tell his story on social media?
Something was going on.
It wasn’t as bad as many made it out to be, but not everything has been peachy between Brown and the Raiders over the past week. I think both sides understood it would be short-lived, but there had to have been an issue – even if it was as simple as a lack of communication.
Maybe HBO’s Hard Knocks will do some explaining tonight, but don’t be too hopeful for anything juicy. Everyone involved with the show seems to have motivation to keep the events of the past week as innocent as possible – and who knows, maybe they were.
I’m just not buying anyone’s version, not even Brown’s, as the full truth and nothing but the truth.
twitter: @raidersbeat
