Antonio Brown has agreed to terms with the Patriots, per source.

[Hackenberg - Banned]

2 minutes ago, batman10023 said:

Agree. Once I saw the video you knew he’s been planning this.  And his I am free comment basically confirms it. 

What it confirmed is he was told to act in it, told what  to say. He didn't  plan anything. It was  planned  for him.

[RobR]

30 minutes ago, Barry McCockinner said:

I saw this before the Pats signed him but watching now makes me say WTF. Like what in the actual **** us going on here? This isn't some personal video. It's a professionally produced product that doesn't feel spontaneous at all. 

How long was this planned out?

I brought up this exact same point in the other thread last night. He had a full on video/audio and edit crew on hand before all of this turned south. Yet the league will turn a blind eye on this even when most fans recognize this was all staged too get him to NE. Total disgrace.

[SAR I]

54 minutes ago, Charlie Brown said:

Ummmmm I have said it before it is TOTALLY different.

In Bells case, he abided by the rules, decided to sit out a year, lost a years salary and then signed with a new team, Period.

That is totally at odds with AB feigning in effect a mental illness to cause so much disruption that his team, first the Steelers and then the Raiders; were forced to release him because he was essentially an unmanageable lunatic. 

These are two totally different scenarios.

Again in the first the player abided by the rules that were designed in collective bargaining, while the latter player used skulduggery and dishonesty to basically void his contract and his obligations to the team.....

I agree, CB.  But what they both have in common is that they wanted out of Pittsburgh and onto a team with a franchise quarterback and they both found their way there through manipulating GM's and free agent loopholes.

Whether or not this benefits the Jets doesn't matter to me so much as the integrity of the game.  Jamal Adams could literally follow the AB script next year and wind up a Patriot too.  All it takes is a couple of tweets and a few phony arguments with your boss and you've got a ticket out of town.

SAR I

[Jetsfan80]

In a way you made a joke but this type of thing is destroying us culturally IMO.
I teach at a school here in NYC and the underlying sense of entitlement is amazing now, and caused in large part IMO, because folks see cutting corners at every turn for the few, privileged, exempt or well connected with no price to be paid.
This slap you in the face and take it move takes the joy out of the our social activities like football, which unlike "Life" is supposed to be fair. 
Anyway........
I know, I know....

But you get the point!!!  
 

Agreed. Good grief!

[Spoot-Face]

3 hours ago, jgb said:

What idiots we are for being preoccupied by the evil scum that has won our division like 19 of the last 20 years.

It's really our fault that this happened.

[PCP63]

I'd say the possibility is small that tampering didn't occur. I mean, it only took a few hours for them to contact him, and then come to terms on the contract? Seems fishy. 

[CanadaSteve]

We all should have saw this coming!

[BigRy56]

This entire thing is nuts. The Pats are going to need all the help they can get this season though

[Tiffany980]

4 hours ago, Augustiniak said:

Kudos for brown, probably had a deal lined up with them all along, just had to fight his way off the raiders.

Sure, because why get $30M guaranteed from the Raiders when you can get $9M guaranteed from the Patriots... SMH...

[Tiffany980]

12 minutes ago, PCP63 said:

I'd say the possibility is small that tampering didn't occur. I mean, it only took a few hours for them to contact him, and then come to terms on the contract? Seems fishy. 

Why would AB pass on $30m guaranteed to make only $9m guaranteed? 

[Hael]

26 minutes ago, SAR I said:

I agree, CB.  But what they both have in common is that they wanted out of Pittsburgh and onto a team with a franchise quarterback and they both found their way there through manipulating GM's and free agent loopholes.

Whether or not this benefits the Jets doesn't matter to me so much as the integrity of the game.  Jamal Adams could literally follow the AB script next year and wind up a Patriot too.  All it takes is a couple of tweets and a few phony arguments with your boss and you've got a ticket out of town.

SAR I

NBA players do it all the time.  It used to be like that in the NFL, and I think  that’s  where things are headed again in the next CBA.

This seems to me to be all about a player feeling like he deserves to be able to sign anywhere.  Now he took a one year prove it deal with the best qb in the league to really inflate his future earnings next year when he signs with the Browns.

[Tiffany980]

12 minutes ago, BigRy56 said:

This entire thing is nuts. The Pats are going to need all the help they can get this season though

The Pats are better on both sides of the ball this year, but you're right about needing help. They have to play against the refs too. Defenses are allowed to tee off on Brady and his head without consequence. It's ridiculous what teams get away with playing against the Pats.

[Charlie Brown]

2 minutes ago, Tiffany980 said:

Why would AB pass on $30m guaranteed to make only $9m guaranteed? 

Because that is $9,000,000 in guaranteed monies out of the $15 Million Brown is getting this year,while the Raiders offered Brown Zero guaranteed dollars!

Brown actually got a raise!

[More Cowbell]

Didn't  the Pat's do this with another player? I think it was Cooks

[Hackenberg - Banned]

23 minutes ago, PCP63 said:

I'd say the possibility is small that tampering didn't occur. I mean, it only took a few hours for them to contact him, and then come to terms on the contract? Seems fishy. 

...........yeah........

But not the kind of fishy you're thinking

[Hackenberg - Banned]

Just now, More Cowbell said:

Didn't  the Pat's do this with another player? I think it was Cooks

Randy Moss

[joewilly12]

Patriots deserve hell for shameful Antonio Brown scheme

By Mark Cannizzaro

September 7, 2019 | 6:33pm | Updated 

 

 

After the Raiders finally released the Diva Formerly Known as Antonio Brown on Saturday, the talented-but-troubled receiver shockingly became available to sign with any NFL team as a free agent at exactly 4:01 p.m. Saturday.

Presumably, at 4:02 p.m., the NFL’s reigning reclamation project experts, the Patriots, called.

Brown and the Patriots agreed to a one-year contract worth up to $15 million, according to ESPN, just hours after the Raiders shockingly released the 31-year-old superstar wide receiver.

Brown — who won’t be permitted to play in the Pats’ Week 1 matchup against his former team, the Steelers — confirmed the signing, which includes a $ 9 million signing bonus, by sharing a Photoshop illustration of him in a Patriots jersey.

“LFG (expletive) #GodsPlan,” the tweet read.

Shame on the Patriots. They should get what they deserve with Brown, which at the very least is a collective season-long migraine headache, but at the worst a team torn apart by the nonsensical distractions Browns brings with him.

Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and his team, whose offseason and training camp were marred by one incident after another involving Brown (each more unbelievable and ridiculous than the other), should hope they parted ways in time to save their 2019 season.

Enlarge Image Antonio Brown; Tom Brady and Bill BelichickAP (2)

Brown — for all his greatness on the field, for his 837 career receptions for more than 11,000 yards and for the 74 touchdowns he’s produced in nine NFL seasons — is not worth the trouble.

Not even for Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and the Patriots. The world of sports is full of enablers. Count the Patriots as the kings of the enablers today.
Enough already.

Haven’t teams seen enough of Brown’s act, which has included accidentally freezing his feet in an offseason cryotherapy session, threatening to retire because he wanted to wear his old helmet that was outlawed by the league for lack of safety, missing practices and meetings, inciting a verbal altercation in the middle of practice with his new general manager, then the clincher, that bizarre video he put out Friday exposing private telephone conversations with Gruden?

The NFL should be finished with Brown. The only endgame justice to this Brown story is that this all blows up on the Patriots.

“We just have exhausted everything,’’ Gruden, who went out of his way to make it work, said Saturday. “We tried every way possible to make it work. I’m sorry it didn’t. I apologize, but I will tell you that I am very proud of what we did as an organization to try.’’

 

 

Gruden, who called Brown “the most misunderstood” person he’s met, said, “I tell you, he’s a good guy. He’s misunderstood by a lot of people. He’s a good guy. He’s a great player and I hope he gets what he’s looking for.”

'They freed me!' Antonio Brown celebrates Raiders release in surreal new video

Sorry, he doesn’t deserve it. Brown, who signed a contract with Oakland that gave him $30 million in guaranteed money and was to pay him $20 million per year, never played a game for the Raiders and threw that all away.

Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, as soon as the news of Brown’s release broke, issued a statement that read: “Now that Antonio is a free agent, we are focused on the future and I will immediately work on signing him to a new team. Antonio is looking forward to a new beginning.”

There should have been no new beginning in the NFL for Brown — especially after how hard Gruden tried to make it work, playing good cop in the saga while GM Mike Mayock played the bad cop.

On that bizarre YouTube video Brown released Friday, you could hear Gruden pleading with Brown to stop the off-the-field nonsense and “just play football.”

“I’m more than just a football player, man,” Brown answered. “I’m a real person. It ain’t about the football, I know I can do that. This is my life. Ain’t no more games.”

That’s actually the first thing out of Brown’s mouth that made any sense. There should, indeed, have been no more games — off or on the field — for him.

Shame on the Patriots.

[Jet_Engine1]

The league has zero integrity.  It's all a joke. We're watching wrestling,  for ****s sake. Embrace it. 

 

The Jets are a Jobber. 

[Rangers9]

Kind of suspicious signing him so fast. But we all know the Patriots don’t break the rules. Esp their owner. Completely above board. 

[Lupz27]

5 hours ago, Greg555 said:

People were saying Belichick wouldn’t do this.

 

are you kidding me?  Beilicheat?  In a heartbeat....and he did.

Yes the guy that was willing, and happy to look the other way while DC for the Giants with LT.  Nobody should be surprised that this ended this way.

[Tiffany980]

47 minutes ago, Charlie Brown said:

Because that is $9,000,000 in guaranteed monies out of the $15 Million Brown is getting this year,while the Raiders offered Brown Zero guaranteed dollars!

Brown actually got a raise!

The Raiders guaranteed Brown $30M! The premise of this thread is that this was a planned scheme by AB and NE. That AB orchestrated the Oakland clown show because he wanted to go to NE!

[Tiffany980]

39 minutes ago, Rangers9 said:

Kind of suspicious signing him so fast. But we all know the Patriots don’t break the rules. Esp their owner. Completely above board. 

One voice of reason can't combat an entire paranoid fanbase, so spread these words of wisdom... Why would AB sign in NE for $9M guaranteed when he already had $30M guaranteed in Oakland? We know AB doesn't care about winning. He only cares about his stats. In NE, Edelman and Gordon already make up the top receiving corps in the AFC.You can't have three 100 catch, 1000 yard receivers.

[Tiffany980]

1 hour ago, RobR said:

I brought up this exact same point in the other thread last night. He had a full on video/audio and edit crew on hand before all of this turned south. Yet the league will turn a blind eye on this even when most fans recognize this was all staged too get him to NE. Total disgrace.

Oakland = $30M guaranteed. NE = $9M guaranteed. Your post = Nonsense...

[Creepy Lurker]

49 minutes ago, Jet_Engine1 said:

The league has zero integrity.  It's all a joke. We're watching wrestling,  for ****s sake. Embrace it. 

 

The Jets are a Jobber. 

We are the Brooklyn brawler. 

[Rangers9]

He was available at 4 pm and they signed him at 4:05 pm. I don’t really care I didn’t want him for us. We know NEP can win without him. As for the loss in guaranteed money it’s AB’s fault. The Raiders tried to work it out but Brown kept pushing it. You heard Grudin’s tape he didn’t want to cut him. It was the best deal they could get, who would sink a guaranteed 30 mil on someone so erratic. The Raiders were lucky they could void that contract. Their FO did a good job making that call in time to save the bacon. 

[jetstream23]

1 hour ago, Tiffany980 said:

Why would AB pass on $30m guaranteed to make only $9m guaranteed? 

Umm...not sure if you've been following this Antonio Brown guy's story but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer if you know what I mean.

It's becoming abundantly clear that playing football with an unapproved helmet all these years has taken its toll.  He honestly may not understand that 30 is a bigger number than 9.

[Spoot-Face]

2 hours ago, Villain The Foe said:

This dude recorded a phone conversation with Gruden and turned it into a freaking Nike commercial. ??

I dont recall anything like this happening before. 

 

[Spoot-Face]

2 hours ago, Hackenberg said:

Long , long ago.

Sports is staged entertainment 

For once, you don't actually seem all that crazy.

 

 

 

Don't get used to me saying that.

[joewilly12]

Do the Patriots Have the Best Group of Wide Receivers Ever Assembled?

Jerry Thornton9/7/2019 6:02 PM

  25

Julian Edelman: Two seasons of 98+ receptions and 1,000 yards. Soon to overtake Jerry Rice as the most prolific postseason receiver in history. MVP of the Super Bowl.

Demaryius Thomas: Four straight seasons with 1,300+ yards, five with 1,000+. The most recent coming with Trevor Siemian as his quarterback. Super Bowl champion.

Josh Gordon: Had 1,600 yards with Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden and Brian Hoyer throwing the ball. And incredible 17.4 YPR for his career, the most by an active player.

Antonio Brown: Has led the NFL in receiving yards twice. Has six straight seasons of over 1,200 yards. Has averaged 1,524 yards over his last six seasons.

Mother of God. You’d win your Fantasy league going away with a group like this. In the span of a few weeks the Patriots receiver corps went from rolling paper thin to the superheroes coming through the wormholes in “Avengers Endgame.”

Imagine you’re a defensive coordinator. How do you defend against this? Especially with all four of these guys now playing with the best quarterback anyone has ever seen? Even if you double two of them – no matter which two – the other two are undefendable in single coverage. And if you go with extra defensive backs – which you’ll have to, you’re left with no choice – this is an offense that’s been transitioning toward a power running game. Going big while defenses are going small.

My greatest concern at this point aren’t that two of these guys have serious issues. It’s that I’m afraid the NFL is going to decide this is unfair and declare it’s illegal. Ginger Satan is probably calling an emergency session in his office right now to break the Patriots up under the Anti-Trust Act. At the very least, he ought to mobilize as many grief counselors as he can and send them to every defensive player, coordinator and assistant in 31 markets.

For those poor, suffering SOBs who don’t know what just hit them, here’s a glimpse into your future.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[Tiffany980]

17 minutes ago, jetstream23 said:

Umm...not sure if you've been following this Antonio Brown guy's story but he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer if you know what I mean.

It's becoming abundantly clear that playing football with an unapproved helmet all these years has taken its toll.  He honestly may not understand that 30 is a bigger number than 9.

OK, on this we agree 100%...

[14 in Green]

AB is going to make 9 mill +5 mil in incentives this year. That's 14 mill, then he's a FA. When he signs his new deal in the offseason, his '19 and '20 (bonus+salary) income will blow away the 30 mil he'd have gotten from the Raiders. Think 40, to 50 mil.

Antonio Brown never wanted to play for Oakland or Buffalo. He is crazy like a fox, and the fox beat the system, like it or not.

[BRONX DUDE]

3 hours ago, Villain The Foe said:

This dude recorded a phone conversation with Gruden and turned it into a freaking Nike commercial. ??

I dont recall anything like this happening before. 

 

THIS WAS THE LAST STRAW

 

POSTING A VIDEO WITH THE RECORDING OF YOUR HEAD COACH.

 

GOOD BYE MAN

 

the Patriot way

[DMan77]

Go put your money on the Pats to win the super bowl right now... I've never been so sure of something sports related in my life. They're a shoe in. Who can beat them? There's no one who can match them on offense. Not even close. They're going to break records this year. 

[Mike135]

12 minutes ago, DMan77 said:

Go put your money on the Pats to win the super bowl right now... I've never been so sure of something sports related in my life. They're a shoe in. Who can beat them? There's no one who can match them on offense. Not even close. They're going to break records this year. 

Eh... Jamal can take out AB or Edelman with one good shot.  

[jetstream23]