Antonio Brown says his words about Tom Brady were ‘taken out of substance’

The former wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers said he loves Brady

Former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Antonio Brown said his ex-teammate, Tom Brady, is a “true friend,” after seemingly questioning his relationship with the Hall of Fame quarterback a week prior.

“I love Tom. That’s my guy. Don’t get it twisted,” Brown said to TMZ on Saturday.

“A lot of words were taken out of substance,” said the Super Bowl champ. “Tom is one of my true friends in the midst of adversity that was there for me, so don’t get it twisted about nothing with Tom Brady.”

“He’s a G.O.A.T. Great player. Great teammate,” he added. “Don’t let my distractions of what’s going on take away from that.”

Earlier this month, the 33-year-old went on a now-deleted Twitter rant implying that Brady and his personal trainer conspired to swindle him out of $100,000 for services that he never received.

“Imagine your QB trainer charging you 100K then doing no work must be was apart of these guys plan all along,” said Brown on Twitter, after requesting a refund from Brady’s trainer who he said didn’t fulfill his end of the bargain.

On Jan. 2, Brown got visibly upset after being called to play during a New York Jets v. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game and proceeded to take off his uniform, pads and undershirt before making a mid-game exit.

The bizarre behavior shocked fans, players, and Buccaneer’s head coach Bruce Arians, who announced that Brown was “no longer a Buc,” during a post-game interview.

In light of the scrutiny, Brady urged people to be “very compassionate and empathetic” towards Brown on the Let’s Go podcast.

“We’ve obviously been teammates and I would just say I love him, I care about him, and I have a lot of compassion,” said Brady in Brown’s defense. “I have a lot of empathy for the things that are happening in his life…I’m gonna continue to do everything I can to try to be a great friend and supportive to Antonio and the things he’s going through.”

After the incident with the Bucs, Brown explained that his behavior stemmed from the fact that he was pressured by Arians to play the game despite suffering an injury to his ankle.

In a statement released by his attorney, he also added that he needs surgery and that there were “broken bone fragments stuck in [his] ankle, the ligament torn from the bone, and cartilage loss, which are beyond painful.”

Brown went on to post screenshots of his conversation with Arians on Twitter, where he told the coach that he is is “all in,” but he rolled his ankle and is concerned about playing the game.

Around that time, while he was a guest on the Full Send podcast, Brown said that Brady didn’t have his back.

“Tom Brady’s my friend why? Because I’m a good football player,” he exclaimed. “He needs me to play football. People have different meanings of what friendship is.”

Brady has yet to publicly comment on any of Brown’s statements.

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