Antonio Brown Reportedly Won’t Play For The Raiders Unless He Can Wear A Banned Helmet

It’s been an extremely interesting calendar year for Antonio Brown, who is currently not with the Oakland Raiders despite being contractually obligated to play football for them. The All-Pro wideout was traded to Oakland by the Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason after an attempt to trade him to the Bills was publicly blown up.

What’s followed has been equally strange, however, as Brown left Raiders camp after apparently suffering frostbite injuries on his feet due to cryotherapy treatment. As training camp continues and the regular season looms closer, though, his absence has started to worry Raiders staff, players and fans alike.

But on Friday word came out that it was not medical concerns, but safety concerns that’s apparently keeping Brown from Raiders camp. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and others reported that a helmet dispute is the cause of Brown’s absence, not frostbite.

The situation is apparently dire enough that Brown has told the team that, unless he can wear his old helmet, he’s not playing this year.

For Brown it’s apparently not a safety issue, but one of vision and his ability to see the field better in the old model.

Other reports went into further detail about Brown’s actions, including Sports Illustrated‘s Michael Silver.

What followed is a 20-tweet thread that describes exactly what sources say is going on in Napa. The issue appears to be that the NFL will no longer let players wear the certain style of helmet that Brown has worn his entire career, as it is deemed not safe enough after further testing. That’s something that hasn’t sat well with Brown, who saw the league change its rules for grandfathering in helmet designs this offseason, meaning that if he wants to play football, he needs to wear a new kind of helmet.

The strangest part of the tweet thread, though, is the revelation that Brown actually painted an old helmet to look like a Raiders helmet, but was quickly spotted because the colors and style weren’t right.

Now this only invites, well, about a million questions about what exactly went down here. Did Antonio Brown paint his own helmet, trying to mimic the pirate logo freehand? Did he find Raiders logos online and rush deliver them, then go pick out paints at a Michael’s or something and embark on one of the oddest craft projects in NFL history?

And how was he found out? Did it start to rain in Napa and the paint slowly dripped off to reveal a Steelers helmet, like the female cat mercifully losing her white paint stripe in a Pepe Le Pew cartoon? Is Jon Gruden just really, really perceptive and knows banned helmet models when he sees one, especially if it’s a Steelers helmet painted sparkly silver?

If there’s any good news here, a helmet issue could potentially be resolved if the team, Brown and the NFL can come to an agreement on a solution. That’s better than a mysterious injury casting real doubt on his ability to actually play. Until a helmet compromise is found, though, it sounds like Brown won’t be suiting up for the Raiders.