The Oakland Raiders relationship with Antonio Browm came to an end before he even played a single game as the team announced on Saturday morning that they released the star wide receiver.
Brown caused drama all throughout training camp, missing numerous practices and walkthroughs as he dealt with feet and helmet issues. That caused the Raiders to fine Brown, costing him guarantees in his contract, which led to Brown asking the Raiders to release him on social media Saturday morning.
One person who was in Brown’s corner supporting him the entire time is Raiders head coach Jon Gruden as he maintained that Brown was just misunderstood and is a good guy that could help the Raiders win football games.
Everyone reaches their breaking point though and it got to the point where supporting Brown was no longer in Gruden or the Raiders’ best interest moving forward.
Gruden spoke about the situation after Saturday’s practice and while he expressed disappointment in his everything played out, he wished Brown well:
“We tried every way possible to make it work. All I’m going to say is it’s disappointing. I’m really proud of our players, our coaches, our owner our front office, we did everything we could to make this work. I’m sorry it didn’t, I apologize but I will tell you I am very proud of what we did as an organization to try. I wish Antonio nothing but the best. I’m sorry that we never got a chance to see him in the silver and black, very disappointing for my career as a coach. I was really looking forward to coaching him but it’s not gonna happen. I’m not gonna sit here and talk about it all day, we’ve got 12 rookies, we’ve got a lot to be excited about and I wish Antonio the very best.”
The Raiders open up their season against the Denver Broncos on Monday night so it is clear that Gruden is looking forward to putting all of this drama behind him so he can focus on coaching his team.
But releasing Brown now, the Raiders do not owe him any of the $30 million on his contract and Brown is able to sign with any team he chooses. It will be interesting to see if he takes any legal action against the Raiders to try and recoup that $30 million in the near future.
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