Antonio Brown’s Lawyer Has A Message For The Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released Antonio Brown on Thursday, ending a tumultuous four-day saga that unfolded after the veteran wide receiver left the field in the middle of last week’s game against the New York Jets.
The move seemed to be the best result for both sides given the fierce back-and-forth between the two parties this past week. However, Brown’s camp is now claiming that the Buccaneers released the 33-year-old too early.
Sean Burstyn, Brown’s lawyer, told Rick Stoud of the Tampa Bay Times that the Buccaneers had scheduled “outside the normal business hours” with a New York doctor on Thursday morning. Brown and his camp then allegedly tried to reschedule that appointment to “a normal, reasonable hour”, but the Bucs released the wide receiver for not seeing the orthopedic specialist during the original time slot.
“We were in the midst of scheduling an appointment with the Bucs’ chosen doctor at [the Hospital for Special Surgery] when we learned, over Twitter, that the Bucs terminated Antonio on Thursday,’’ Burstyn said, via Stroud. “On Wednesday night, the Bucs concocted a bogus scheme to engineer a way to cut Antonio. They arbitrarily picked an appointment time outside of normal business hours early Thursday morning. We immediately spoke to the doctor and asked if he had reviewed recent MRIs and whether we could reschedule to a normal, reasonable hour. When the doctor said he had not yet seen the images and was graciously willing to see us at a normal time, we proceeded to rescheduling. Again, the Bucs fired Antonio for not showing up to a doctor’s appointment that was being rescheduled to later that same day. (And, yes, we have the texts proving exactly that.)
“The Bucs’ chosen time was pure gamesmanship. It was a pretextual termination to give them a reason to cut AB. They did this because they know that [coach] Bruce Arians’ on-the-field termination of AB was unlawful. So they tried covering it up using their latest dirty trick: ‘Surprise attack’ medical care that they never intended for AB to receive.”
Burstyn also shared a Twitter thread on Sunday morning, explaining what he alleges is “underhanded treatment” by the Buccaneers.
What’s the “official” reason Antonio Brown cut from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? You probably didn’t know the answer until now.🧵
(This isn’t a complaint about AB being cut. It’s an example of underhanded treatment of an injured player that obscures what happened last Sunday.)
— Sean Burstyn (@seanburstyn) January 9, 2022
TL;DR version: AB was fired for not attending a doctor’s appointment that was in the process of being rescheduled to a normal time and after the doctor reviewed the relevant medical records. The rescheduling was over the phone and, of course, through written communications.
— Sean Burstyn (@seanburstyn) January 9, 2022
It’s unclear exactly what Burstyn hopes to gain from making this claim about his client’s release. Brown obviously can’t return to the Buccaneers and he will still receive his game check from Week 18 because he wasn’t cut until Thursday.
The Bucs have yet to comment on the latest allegation out of Brown’s camp.
The post Antonio Brown’s Lawyer Has A Message For The Buccaneers appeared first on The Spun.
