Antonio Brown only played for the Bucs for parts of two seasons, but he will forever live in infamy mainly for two reasons. First, he played a critical role on the team’s 2020 Super Bowl run, even catching a touchdown in the Super Bowl. Second, everyone knows about him walking off the field in the middle of the Jets game, which marked the end of his tumultuous NFL career.

Even recently, he continues to be in the headlines, and not for good reasons. It was revealed that the National Arena League team he obtained majority ownership of back in April, the Albany Empire, was kicked out of the league after he failed to pay the team’s fees and the fines he received.

Brown, or “AB” for short, finally opened up about many things – including his short but controversial tenure in Tampa Bay – on the “It Needed To Be Said” podcast with Tyreek Hill and Julius Collins.

Antonio Brown On Bucs: “I Didn’t Think They Were Really Grateful For Me”

Even though the Bucs, and Tom Brady, gave Antonio Brown his chance back in the league after flame-outs with the Raiders and Patriots, Brown did not feel appreciated for who he was as a person right from the start. Appearing on the podcast, he brought listeners through the chronological order of how things went down.

Bucs WR Antonio Brown and QB Tom Brady – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

“First it’s like, ‘AB’s here, he’s staying with Tom [Brady], they’re making me look like a little kid,” Brown said on living in Brady’s house in Tampa. “I’m a grown man that’s been in this league for over 10, 11 years. I’m not here to Boy Scout and stay with people and be controlled. They’re minimizing my role off the bat.

“He’s here, he’s staying with Tom – I’m just this crazy guy that just came. The only [reason] I’m here is to help win the Super Bowl – let’s keep it clear. They went to make it that I was still some kind of issue. Then they win, do everything that we said we’re supposed to do, we do, and then I’m here, the last one getting signed for a low deal. I had already played eight games for $1,000,000 dollars – $900,000 – and there was a bonus if I catch 45 passes for $250,000 and $750,000 if we win. That’s like some hocus pocus if this just happens … I was grateful, but I didn’t think they were really grateful for me.”

After the 2020 season that saw the Bucs win the Super Bowl and re-sign all 22 of their starters, Brown was the last to get his deal and did not think the financial terms really demonstrated the value he brought to the team.

“When you’re a player, and you’re putting your all in this and really living it, putting your life on the line, knowing where you were at,” Brown said. “The next year, damn, I see the real value in what they really think of me. The older you get as a player you realize, ‘Yo, I really can’t do this forever.’ I was really getting smart after the season.”

Antonio Brown Thought Bucs Were Trying To Take Him Down

Antonio Brown then went into extensive detail when asked about the buildup to the Jets game in Week 17 of 2021. After explaining that he was never fully healthy while with the Bucs, Brown also explained that he felt he was never treated fairly and the blame was often placed on him.

Former Bucs WR Antonio Brown – Photo by: USA Today

“I got a pure heart, so these boys, you know, I’m hurt,” Brown said. “They put the COVID [vaccination card on me], I get suspended. They told me to come [to the facility]. Now I told them – I’m not coming because now I already saw they were trying to take me down the wrong way, and I was really official.

“So now I meet with Tom Brady. He was giving me talks, he thinks I’m like a narcissist. I’m like, what bro? I really been over here, low volume because I really am supposed to be turned up. I’m really a go-to guy. I’m here to get these guys inspired; I’m really coming off the bench playing while I’m hurt. Yeah, I’m the spark.”

Antonio Brown made a sacrifice to join the Bucs, but they were the only team willing to take a chance on him and his antics. They gave him the role of being the third receiver, and based on the picture he painted, it is doubtful that he ever fully bought in.

“So yeah, you’re not seeing me for who I am,” Brown said. “I’m meeting with him, and I’m seeing him talk to me – if it’s all us in the room, he gotta get a little – ‘It just can’t be all about you.’ But I’m like, the guy here with the lowest salary. I’m like, ‘Yo, what are you talking about?’ It’s not like you threw to me in the game over 20 targets, 15 targets. I don’t even know why – you should be talking to me from a support standpoint, not from a controlling one. If you look at 2021, I’m making crazy highlights at the beginning of the year on their team. You ain’t see their guys taking the ball on the drag route and going 21 miles an hour scoring.”

In Brown’s eyes, he was being paid a low salary ($3,100,000) while still putting up elite numbers alongside Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Rob Gronkowski. In the seven games he played during the 2021 season, he had 42 receptions for 545 yards and four touchdowns. This also included three 100-yard games. In Week 17, the only reason he played was because Brady “gassed him up.”

“So Tom called me like, ‘This week, man, the Jets, man, they sweet man,'” Brown said. “‘I’m gonna hit you with like 10 to 12 [targets].’ He gassed me up, so you know me. That’s all I needed to hear. You going to throw me the ball? That’s like me saying I got a new crib, you know what I’m saying? He done geeked me up. I’m already really f-cked up, but as a player, if you f-cked up and your and your team around you supporting you, you might suck it up for the team. Tom Brady hit me up like, ‘Yo, this a big week.’ So I’m like, f-ck, I know my sh-t f-cked up, but it’s like if you’re going to f-ck with me like that, why not? So I dressed up, suited up, and I got there.”

Antonio Brown: “Once I Got To New York, I Already Felt The Bad Energy”

Some context here is necessary. The week before, the Bucs won against the Panthers 32-6, with Antonio Brown receiving 15 targets and catching 10 passes for 101 yards. After coming back from his suspension for a faked COVID-19 vaccination card, Chris Godwin was out after tearing his ACL, and Mike Evans was out with a hamstring injury. This left the team’s options at receiver being Brown, Cyril Grayson, and Scotty Miller for that game. Brown saw his return as fate and part of God’s plan.

Bucs WR Antonio Brown – Photo by: USA Today

“Look how God works,” Brown said. “I come back; all their players get hurt. One guy pulled his hamstring, one guy tore his ACL. All of them guys hurt. The guys who run the offense who get the ball, in one week … get hurt. So now I’m coming back to play against Carolina – I probably shouldn’t have been playing, but I got so much hate.

“Have you ever been through some sh-t that you ain’t even supposed to even go through this, right? But it was like, you got to go through it because it’s a purpose. ‘Yo, maybe that’s the purpose because all of their guys are hurt. Now they need me.’ Now I’m coming back, and I’m half hurt, but I’m like, ‘Yo, I gotta play.’ In my mind, I know it’s a bigger picture. I play against Carolina and I go for a 100; I go crazy.” 

He then went on to explain that after Brady threw exactly 50% of his passes his way, Brown still felt that the team was not working with him and that the energy was not right.

“I think I played [Stephon] Gilmore,” Brown said. “I’m giving him crispy routes – major angles, square shoulders, head, shoulders, sticks. I gave him a clinic. But I noticed when I’m in the game, if you go to the film, it’s like they’re trying to get me off, but it’s like if I’m your guy, all these guys hurt. I went for a hundred. Get me to the box – give me a nugget. I’m over here running stats; I’m trying to be the greatest.

“So sometimes I get a little spicy when I feel like they are not trying to work with me because I experienced that with the Steelers. When I see the energy going towards that, then I gotta fend for myself. So after the Carolina game, we go to the Jets, and it’s like, you know, I already figured out I was hurt, I’m on so much Toradol they shot me up with, you know, I’m gonna have – I’m Batman now. I feel like the shot made me more mad [laughs]. It’s like when you know you are hurt, and you really can’t do what you need to do. I’m playing with the shot, and it’s like, I’m doing this sh-t every game, and you realize, like, ‘No, I’m really f-cked up. I shouldn’t be doing this.'”

Antonio Brown’s wild exit from the Jets game – and the league – has been documented ad nauseam, but his perspective here is … interesting. Leading up to the end of the season, he saw his time with the Bucs as God testing him and having a me-against-the-world mentality – right or wrong.

No one can question his results, but he clearly felt that – just before hitting his contract incentives and making another playoff run, he should hang it up on his terms and give some payback to hurt the Bucs just as much as he felt they hurt him.