Antonio Brown posts workout with Seahawks’ Russell Wilson. More questions than answers
If pictures really are worth a thousand words, Antonio Brown’s latest video posting with Russell Wilson is worth almost as many questions.
First: What was the exiled, unsigned, four-time All-Pro wide receiver doing running routes on what appeared to be Wilson’s training field in California, catching passes from the Seahawks’ franchise quarterback?
That’s what Brown posted on his Instagram account Wednesday.
He was wearing a helmet from his former Oakland Raiders, with whom he signed last year but never played in a game.
2. Why is this Brown working out with Wilson not exactly a shock?
Wilson often hosts receivers for offseason workouts in California. Seahawks teammate DK Metcalf has been one this spring into summer.
Wilson has been wanting Seattle to sign Brown, per what long-time NFL reporter John Clayton wrote for KIRO-AM radio’s website in late May, citing league sources.
Brown, who turns 32 next week, is also close with Seahawks backup quarterback Geno Smith. On May 27, Brown posted a video of him training with Smith. It was seven days after Seattle re-signed Smith for 2020.
It was an odd sight, Brown running in Steelers football pants and a Raiders helmet.
Brown has been selected for seven Pro Bowls in his nine seasons with Pittsburgh and his lost, one-game season last year with New England, before he acted himself out of the league in 2019. He has seven seasons with at least 1,100 yards receiving, six with at least 101 catches and four years with at least 10 touchdowns.
So, why wouldn’t Wilson want him on the Seahawks?
Does this mean the Seahawks are about to sign Brown?
No.
Why?
Brown got in messes with his Oakland Raiders last summer for: getting frostbite on his feet for not wearing required protection while in a cryotherapy machine; complaining about the NFL not allowing him to wear the older, non-approved style of helmet he preferred; and fines for missing practices, among other things.
The Raiders released him before he played a game for them.
Coach Pete Carroll said in early September his Seahawks inquired about possibly signing Brown upon the Raiders releasing him. Carroll is proud to say he doesn’t mind “getting close to the edge” in seeking players. Such is his supreme confidence in his leadership and his ability to fit anyone into his program, be it Josh Gordon, Marshawn Lynch, Percy Harvin...
Or Antonio Brown.
“We are involved in everything. We’ve been telling you that for a long time,” Carroll said last September, two days after Brown acted his way out of Oakland.
But before the Seahawks could get anywhere with Brown, the wide receiver agreed to sign a free-agent contract with the New England Patriots, reportedly worth up to $15 million in 2020 with a $9 million signing bonus.
“We seriously mean we are tying to know what’s going on with every opportunity out there. If we miss one of those, we mess up,” Carroll said.
Eleven days and one game after Brown signed with New England, the Patriots cut him—as the NFL was investigating Brown for multiple accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior, including rape.
He hasn’t played since.
In late December he had a tryout with the New Orleans Saints that did not amount to anything.
In January, Brown was arrested and charged with assaulting a delivery driver outside his home in Florida. He was briefly under house arrest. According to Broward County court records in Florida, the case ended with him getting two years probation until June 12, 2022. He was sentenced to a 13-week anger-management program, among other conditions.
The NFL is still investigating Brown for alleged sexual misconduct against two women. The league’s investigation found Brown sent threatening, aggressive text messages to one of the women.
Most around the league believe Brown will be put on the commissioner Roger Goodell’s exempt list and suspended for many games before he plays in his next one. If he plays in another one.
In late September, after the Raiders and Patriots had released him, the league issued a statement on Brown. It read, in part: “If he is signed by a club, such placement (on the commissioner’s exempt list) may become appropriate at any time depending on the status of the investigation. Upon conclusion of the investigation, he may be subject to discipline if the investigation finds that he has violated the law or league policies.”
So if the Seahawks, or any other team, wants to sign Brown, it’s likely to be for late in the 2020 season and playoffs. At the earliest.
So what’s all this mean?
It’s early July. In a pandemic.
Brown working out with Wilson is going to get attention any time, but especially right now with most of the nation still locked down, and in the quietest time of the NFL year weeks before training camps are scheduled to begin.
But the league still doesn’t know if—or how—it’s going to pull off a full season with the coronavirus spiking again across many parts of the country. Players are voicing concern over the risk they may be taking by playing this fall.
The league, and Wilson’s team, have so many more pressing, unresolved matters to determine before Antonio Brown could or would become a Seahawk.
