Antonio Brown Will Reportedly Be Suspended After A ‘Screaming Match’ With Raiders GM Mike Mayock

The Antonio Brown saga has been one of the most fascinating NFL stories of the offseason, really only trailing the sudden retirement of Andrew Luck for the craziest thing to happen in professional football in 2019.

Brown missed much of Raiders camp due to a pair of issues. The first was an issue of frostbite on his feet from a cryotherapy session gone awry that kept him out of action. The second and the one that’s created the most headlines was his highly publicized helmet grievance against the NFL, which had ruled his 10-year-old Schutt AiR Advantage could not be worn anymore because it didn’t meet their helmet safety guidelines.

Brown filed an appeal with the NFL over this issue, tried to sneak a model of the helmet into practice by painting it silver and black himself, sought out a newer model online once that became a potential loophole, filed another appeal once the NFL ruled the newer model he found still didn’t pass their safety tests, and has since cashed in on the whole thing by signing an endorsement deal with a new helmet manufacturer. Through all of this, Brown missed the majority of practices and walkthroughs, occasionally showing up but not always.

As happens to players that miss camp for non-injury issues, Brown was quietly issued a fine by the Raiders for just north of $50,000 for everything that happened. Brown took extreme exception to this, posting the letter of the fine to his Instagram and called out the Raiders for “hating” on him and said “everyone got to pay this year.”

That, unsurprisingly, didn’t go over well in Oakland, where he and GM Mike Mayock apparently had it out on Wednesday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, which will likely lead to Brown getting suspended by his new team.

Josina Anderson of ESPN reports the argument took place in front of the whole team at practice yesterday, and stemmed from the fines Brown was upset over.

Benjamin Allbright reports Brown’s issue is with Mayock, and that he had to be restrained during the altercation.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network offered some details on the “screaming match” between Brown and Mayock, and that Brown punted a ball off the field at the end of it, goading the GM to fine him again.

Brown is not with the team on Thursday with on-field practice scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. PT this morning, per Schefter.

If Brown didn’t like getting fined, he certainly won’t appreciate getting suspended if it costs him a game check. Even worse, as Ian Rapoport notes, a suspension could also void the $30 million guarantees in his contract.

The relationship between organization and star player seemingly couldn’t be worse than it is right now in Oakland, and Brown hasn’t even played a down of football for the Raiders yet. It seems unlikely he’ll let this slide without a response of some kind, which will only exacerbate the problem and we’ll just have to see what the next scene is in the NFL’s greatest soap opera.

Mayock met with reporters briefly on Thursday, answering no questions and simply issuing a statement that Brown wasn’t at practice.