Antonio Brown is an American football wide receiver and is currently a free agent. He started his NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has also played for the Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He has enjoyed record-breaking campaigns, notably with the Steelers, but has also had his fair share of controversies, with sexual assault allegations, reckless driving incidents, and felony charges like burglary and assault ensuring that there is an asterisk marked to his name.

Who is Antonio Brown?

Antonio Brown was born on July 10th, 1988 in Miami, Florida. He did his high schooling at Miami Norland High School there, before playing his college football for the Central Michigan Chippewas between 2007 and 2009.

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He was selected by the Steelers as the 195th overall pick in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft, and given a 3-year rookie contract worth $1.28 million, with a signing bonus of $73,075. He slotted in as the 5th wide receiver in the depth charts for the Steelers ahead of his debut season in the NFL but enjoyed a fruitful year in which he helped the Steelers all the way to the Super Bowl, where they fell just short, losing out 31-25 to the Green Bay Packers. 

He continued to rise through the ranks in his second season with the Steelers as he became the first player in NFL history to have more than 1,000 yards receiving as well as returning in the same season, and he was rewarded with his first Pro Bowl appearance, as he helped the AFC defeat the NFC 59-41.

The Steelers acted swiftly to tie him down, with a 5-year $42.5 million contract extension signed on July 28, 2012, a massive leap from the 3-year rookie contract he had signed just 2 years back. In 2013, Brown became the only wide receiver in NFL history to have recorded five receptions and at least 50 yards in every game of an NFL season. His 1398 receiving yards that season eclipsed the record set in 1997 by Yancey Thigpen. He was ranked 23rd on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2014 by his peers.

His star continued to rise as he led the NFL in receptions (129), receiving yards (1,698), and was joint second in touchdowns (13); all three were new team records as well. This made him the first Steeler to lead the league since 1968. He was ranked 8th by his fellow peers on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2015. Some of these records weren’t to last long, as Brown returned next season, in 2016, to surpass them yet again- making a league-high 136 receptions for 1,834 yards. He thus ended up setting the record for most receptions in a two-year span with 265 from 2014 to 2015, as well as the most receptions in a three-year span with 375 from 2013 to 2015. That year, the Steelers lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions Denver Broncos in the playoffs, in a game in which Brown had to sit out due to injury. He was ranked as the top wide receiver in the NFL and the 4th in the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016.

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On February 27, 2017, Brown became the highest-paid wide receiver in the NFL after agreeing on a 4-year extension worth $68 million, and the following year got announced as the cover athlete for Madden NFL 19, the popular EA Sports NFL video game. 

However, trouble had been brewing within the ranks. Brown had first found himself in a soup when he had broadcast to social media the Steelers’ locker room celebrations after the divisional round victory during the 2016-17 playoffs. His actions put his team in a tricky position, and he was disciplined by the head coach for his violations. The following year, there were tantrums thrown over the plays from his teammates, and by 2018 he had begun to skip practices, after allegedly getting into an argument with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He soon requested a trade, and the Oakland Raiders snapped him up officially on March 13, 2019.

The situation only worsened for him at the Raiders, and after several altercations and errors in judgement on his part, he was released by the Raiders, even before he had featured for them even once. 

The same day, on September 7, 2019, he signed with the New England Patriots on a 1-year contract worth up to $15 million, but after making his debut against the Miami Dolphins, he was cut out by the Patriots on September 20, when sexual allegations started cropping up against him, and he was found to have sent intimidating text messages to one of the accusers. 

His penchant for causing trouble and his general misbehaviour had burned a lot of the good reputation he had earned for himself in the NFL, and in 2020 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gambled on him with a 1-year contract that contained a $1 million base salary, and $1.5 million performance incentives. This move turned out for the better for both team and player, as the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl that season- Brown’s first Super Bowl of his career. 

Also read: Watch | Antonio Brown rips Bucs’ uniform, exits field during win vs New York Jets

However, he burned his bridges at the Buccaneers as well, after he took off his jersey, shoulder pads, and gloves and ran off into the locker room during the game against the New York Jets. He was released from the Buccaneers and he has since been without a team.

He has appeared in Drake’s popular hit music video God’s Plan and has since begun to release music under the artist name AB- his initials. He put out his debut single ‘Whole Lotta Money’ in January 2020.