Antonio Brown is known for his athletic abilities as he had a great run in the NFL as a wide receiver. He was widely recognized as a top-tier athlete and played for four teams (Pittsburgh Steelers, Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) for 12 seasons. After his last season playing with the Buccaneers, he refused to play and left the league after running off the field during a game in 2021.
Since then, he’s been enjoying his free time and tapping into the music industry as he released a few songs like “Put That S**t On," "Don’t Leave” with Keyshia Cole, and “Get In My Bag.” In his episode of “Caresha Please,” Brown talked about CTE, family, women, and how he has been portrayed unfairly by the media. Check out six highlights below from the episode.
1. He doesn’t believe he has CTE
Due to some of the unexpected antics that the public has seen take place with the former professional athlete, there’s been some concern about his mental health. Although he hasn’t been diagnosed, many think he suffers from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which he denies. If anything, he says he has trauma from things that happened in his childhood.
“Growing up in Miami, you probably seen shootouts… was normal, right?” the 36-year-old asked Yung Miami. “Like, you know what I'm saying? Stuff that we probably think was normal, wasn't normal, but I feel like those traumas that we go through, it kind of shape our perspective in the world and the stuff we deal with. So, I feel like CTE is not just a football thing from being hit.”
2. His online antics are just entertainment
At times, Brown tweeted sentiments that some would deem out of pocket about his personal life or things happening in mainstream media. In addition to those, Instagram Live videos and posts he’s published have gone viral. For him, it isn’t anything serious because people tend to like mess, so it’s entertaining for them.
“I just got testosterone and I just like to be respected. You know what I'm saying? I'm from Miami, so I took a lot of disrespect. But for the most part, I'm just an entertainer and I like to bring a lot of tension to s**t,” the father of seven said. “Because I feel like people don't push me to a point where I was, like, nah, I got to be… not even defend myself, it's just, like, now I got to make a joke out of them. I come up with big jokes, smokes and jokes.”
“So, if I'm being funny or bringing some light to something, it's probably some realness and a little entertainment because I don't want to take it too serious,” he added.
3. The gift of football runs in his family
As a person who had a lot of success on the football field and a longer run than most in the NFL, he credited his talent to his family. During his sit down with Yung Miami, he said that football was a generational gene he got.
The Miami-born athlete shared, “I mean, my dad was a football player. He played for Nowhere Boys Club. He went to Miami Central. My dad was one of the greatest football players of all-time with the Arena League, so he ain't really had to discipline [himself]. So, I'm like another version of him with discipline. But his name was ‘Touchdown’ Eddie Brown. So, my whole family was into sports, starting with his dad who went Northwestern, played basketball, so I'm from a football family.”
4. He doesn’t think parents should pressure kids to love a sport
As someone who made it to the league, he knows that talent isn’t the only attribute that will help you make it. He believes that there has to be passion behind the reason someone wants to play a sport, something he instills in his six sons who are involved in competitive sports organizations.
He explained, “I feel like I train them, but I feel like being in the sports it got to be self-will. Like you got to want to do it. So, for me, it's just, like, I'm there to assist my kids but, like, being an athlete… it gotta be, you got to want it yourself. Like, my son is 16 right now. He played basketball, but he only played hard if I paid the trainers or if I'm coming to see [him] and it can't be like that. In sports, you got to really want it for yourself.”
5. He believes the media aims to make him look bad
With all the stories that have circulated in publications about Brown, he feels that it’s created a persona of him that’s not true. He explained there were incorrect stories because parts of what happened were missing.
“I mean, it's one that they like to sell,” he said. “When they talk about me, they make money. They monetize my name, you know what I'm saying? So, I feel like people would expect me to be crazy in where I am, but I'm saying that s**t. I'm civilized.”
He continued, “Ain't a n**ga in America Black that they make look good, let's be real.”
6. He filed bankruptcy to protect his assets
Earlier this year, Brown filed for bankruptcy after a jeweler sued him. Given some prior money he owed, he didn’t want his hard-built empire to crash to the ground. To save it, he decided to go forward with the filing to save what he had left. Despite this, he revealed he isn’t “broke.”
“I ain't really broke, but I'm all right,” he clarified. “It's just you ain't got enough money to cover the debt of people that are trying to take your money. So, still form a protection, protecting my asset. Gotta protect what you work for, you feel me? You know a lot of n**gas from Miami go broke.”