The Rise and Fall of Antonio Brown

By Benjamin Chan-Kai, 25’

Flashy, explosive, and unpredictable; that's the best way to describe Antonio Brown on and off the field. In his career, Brown became one of the most loved and idolized superstars, but as bright as his star shined, it burnt out even quicker.

Brown, unlike the majority of superstars in the NFL, wasn't born rich. His mother and father divorced at the age of 10. His father, Eddie Brown, was also a football player but never was given the chance to play professionally. His father’s career caused many absences for most of Brown's life, leaving him to live with his mother in Liberty City, Miami.

Halfway through his senior year, Brown’s mother kicked him out of the house, making him homeless for six months. Because of this, his grades suffered and lowered his chances of playing college football.

In high school, Brown received the ‘Miami athlete of the year award’ for a remarkable performance in football. This could have piqued many colleges' interest, but due to his issues at home, no school tried to recruit him.

Only one college was willing to give him a chance: Central Michigan University (CMU). As a freshman, he led the college football league in punt returns, (a punt return is one of the receiving team's options to respond to a punt) and posted 1,000 yards and 100 receptions.

By his junior year he was CMU’s all-time reception leader, but cut his collegiate career short to prepare for the NFL draft.

Brown was selected in the sixth round with the 195th pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

By his second year on the team, Brown had earned himself a starting wide receiver spot, and was offered a 5-year, 40 million dollar contract with Pittsburgh.

In 2013, Brown broke every single receiving record in Steelers history for a single season, making him one of the best wide receivers in the NFL.

Brown had truly come from nothing and still risen into an NFL star, and an idol for aspiring players.

Sadly, in 2016, Brown suffered a career-altering injury to the head, which set him on a new trajectory. He suffered a severe concussion, which Kevin Colbert, former Steelers general manager, says “has changed the way he treated his teammates and his team.”

Brown's then-quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger, said that “Antonio changed as a player and person. After the 2016 season, he was never the same.”

Slowly, his ego began to drive a wedge between himself and his teammates.

In 2017, he recorded his head coach, Mike Tomlin, giving a motivational speech to the team on Instagram live. This made Brown's teammates and coaches lose trust in him because he had shared a confidential speech with the entire world.

However, the Steelers thought Antonio was too good to let him go to another team, so they signed him again, making him the highest-paid athlete in the NFL at the time.

Despite this, Tomlin reported that Brown would continuously skip practice and become “unreachable” on some days.

Everything changed in 2018 when Brown was charged and arrested for throwing furniture outside his hotel window, which allegedly hit a child.

Between him tarnishing their brand's reputation and skipping practice, the Pittsburgh Steelers finally traded Brown to the Oakland Raiders.

But trouble soon arose in Oakland, after Brown refused new league-mandated helmets, and insisted on wearing his childhood helmet because it made him feel “safer.”

Oakland saw him as too much to deal with and released his contract before a single game. Soon after, the New England Patriots tried to recruit him, but he was quickly released after one game.

After his release, he was accused of sexually assaulting his former athletic trainer. Soon after, two more women came forward saying Brown assaulted them as well.

Nothing came of the allegations, but they made certain that no NFL team wanted anything to do with him.

Until October 2020, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed him because Buccaneer's general manager, Jason Licht, said that “He is too talented to let sit in retirement.”

Brown was performing like a star once again, until week 17 of that NFL season. The Buccaneers played the New York Jets, when suddenly in the third quarter of the game, Brown ran out of the stadium shirtless.

In the aftermath of Antonio Brown's in-game exit from the Buccaneers, the organization and quarterback Tom Brady repeatedly suggested that Brown was experiencing a mental health challenge.

Brown’s absence from the NFL left him a lot of free time. On May 14, 2022, Brown exposed himself and attempted to sexually assault another woman in a pool at the Armani Hotel Dubai, and was quickly thrown out.

His actions have caused a lot of controversy throughout the NFL community. Caleb Reznick, 25’ says that “as a super Steelers fan, I used to love Antonio Brown, what’s happened to him now is truly tragic.”

Now Steelers fans watch as their fallen superstar becomes one of the most controversial celebrities today.