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Antonio Brown slammed for accusing Buccaneers of INJECTING him with dangerous drug

'Coach was telling me that if I didn’t play hurt, then I was done with the Bucs,' the 33-year-old football wide receiver added

Antonio Brown revealed on Wednesday, January 5, that he’ll soon undergo ankle surgery and alleged that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers knew about his injury but still forced him to play. In a statement via his lawyer Sean Burstyn, the 33-year-old said, “Because of my commitment to the game, I relented to pressure directly from my coach [Bruce Arians] to play injured. Despite the pain, I suited up, the staff injected me with what I know was a powerful and sometimes dangerous painkiller that the NFLPA has warned against using, and I gave it all for my team.”

Brown also said that he played with the extreme pain and claimed to not leave “his brothers” but was “cut” and “thrown out” by the team. The wide receiver and his attorney confirmed that he got an MRI done on Monday, January 3. The report, which mentioned broken fragments in his ankle, was checked twice by two top orthopedic surgeons, including Dr Martin O’Malley, in New York City. But apparently, the Buccaneers did not take it seriously and asked Brown to have the report checked by a “junior doctor” at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

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The player went to allege that after his pain became unbearable, he sat down but Buccaneers’ coach Bruce Arians asked him to play. The statement read, “I took a seat on the sideline and my coach came up to me, very upset, and shouted, `What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you?’ I told him, ‘It’s my ankle.’ But he knew that. It was well documented and we had discussed it.”

“He then ordered me to get on the field. I said, ‘Coach, I can’t.’ He didn’t call for medical attention. Instead, he shouted at me, `YOU’RE DONE!’ while he ran his finger across his throat. Coach was telling me that if I didn’t play hurt, then I was done with the Bucs,” Brown added. His lawyer also backed him and tweeted, “Antonio Brown never faked an injury in his life. It is incredible that people are pushing false rumors that what happened Sunday was the result of mental health issues and not a well known ankle injury. Mental health is important, but so is basic dignity.”

But people slammed him online. A critic tweeted, “I believe AB for the most part here, especially since Arians has a habit of throwing his players under the bus. Not a fan of him as a coach at all. But if AB was in that much pain why was man doing jumping jacks on his way out lol.” The second one said, “Dude was jumping up and down all the way off the field, but we are to believe he was in unbearable pain?!?! Nope!” “That ankle ain't look too bad as he danced through the end zone and threw all his gear into the crowd, I mean, he looked perfectly fine to me the entire way off,” a user added.

However, there were a few who believed him. A supporter of Brown stated, “So what it seems like is that they kept him from seeing a doctor for his injury, tried to force him to play, and then when he quit they used his previous reputation to frame the situation as AB being unreasonable. Disgusting. I stand with Antonio Brown.” Another one wrote, “To summarize: AB had a very bad ankle injury that he couldn’t play with and Arians told him to get out there and play or he’s off the team. AB refuses, because of pain, and he’s cut. Arians claims to have not known about the injury, when he did. So Brown is in the right here.”