Former Central Michigan star Antonio Brown avoids suspension, will play season opener
Jon Gruden announced Friday that Antonio Brown will play the Oakland Raiders' season opener.
Brown had a suspension looming and was told not to report to work on Thursday. He issued an "emotional apology" to the team Friday morning.
Following the apology for his actions since joining Raiders, Gruden decided to allow Brown to play in the opener 10:20 p.m. Sept. 9 against the Denver Broncos at the Oakland Alameda County Coliseum.
"Antonio is back," Gruden said. "We're really excited about that. We're ready to move on. He's had time to think about things, Raider Nation is excited about that, too."
ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Thursday that Brown and Raiders' general manager Mike Mayock were involved in an altercation after the wide receiver was fined $54,000 for missing a training camp session on Aug. 18 and a walkthrough on Aug. 22.
Brown was reportedly restrained by teammates in the face-to-face altercation with Mayock at the Raiders team facility, as reported by The Athletic's Vic Tafur.
The altercation was not physical, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport but was more of a screaming match between the two. Brown did say to Mayock that he would hit the GM in the face and punted a football, "fine me for that," Brown said.
Brown missed significant time during training camp because he was not permitted to wear the helmet he had worn since he broke into the NFL in 2010 with Pittsburgh. The NFL said that the Schutt Air Advantage helmet did not meet certifications and was more than 10-years old, which makes it no longer certified.
The helmets that he tried did not work for him because he said he could not see the ball properly or prevented him to move as he wanted to.
It was recently reported that Brown found a helmet that both fit the league conformity and worked for him when he announced he would wear the Xenith Shadow helmet.
He also missed time because he had frostbite on his feet after not wearing proper footwear in a cryotherapy chamber.
Mayock gave Brown an ultimatum after the latter missed practice Aug. 18.
"So here's the bottom line. He's pretty upset about the helmet issue," Mayock said. "We have supported that. We appreciate that. But at this point, we've pretty much exhausted all avenues of relief. So from our perspective, it's time for him to be all in or all out. So we're hoping he's back soon."
A few weeks later, when Brown received the letter detailing his fines from the Raiders, he took to social media to express his displeasure with what his team, and Mayock, had sent him.
“When your own team want to hate but there’s no stopping me now devil is a lie,” Brown wrote on his Instagram story. “Everyone got to pay this year so we clear.”
This is not the first time that Brown and his team fought, he had a rough time towards the end of his tenure in Pittsburgh. He and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger were in a spat because the wide receiver was upset because he was not getting the ball as much as he wanted and felt as though he was underappreciated by the Steelers.
The rift in the locker room grew as the 2018 season came to an end and Brown was eventually traded to Oakland on March 10.
Brown caught 104 passes last season for 1,297 yards and 15 touchdowns. He has amassed 1,000 yards in all but two of his nine seasons in the NFL, all of which had been with Pittsburgh.
At CMU, Brown achieved 3,199 yards on 305 catches and was a member of the 2009 Mid-American Conference championship team, the last in program history.
