Bruce Arians On Antonio Brown’s Sideline Meltdown: ‘He Is No Longer A Buc’

Antonio Brown’s tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers has featured a considerable amount of off-field drama, but thanks to the support of Tom Brady, Brown has remained with the team as he’s been a favorite of the future Hall of Fame quarterback.

While a suspension for using a fake vaccine card wasn’t enough for the Bucs to decide they were done with Brown, the former All-Pro receiver made that decision for them two weeks after returning to the field by storming off the sidelines with a rather spectacular tantrum in the middle of the Tampa drive in the third quarter against the Jets. Brown, who had three catches for 26 yards to that point, was infuriated about something and ignored Mike Evans pleas to calm down, eventually ripping off his shoulder pads, throwing his undershirt and gloves into the stands, and walking off the field shirtless.

In case it wasn’t clear at that point, Bucs coach Bruce Arians gave a brief statement after the game about Brown’s tantrum, saying simply, “he is no longer a Buc.”

Arians was clearly not pleased and did not want to talk about the Brown situation, reiterating that he wasn’t part of the team anymore and he wouldn’t be talking about him.

The Bucs are now down two of their top receivers coming into the season, with Brown now gone and Chris Godwin suffering a torn ACL two weeks ago to end his season. In Brown’s absence, Brady turned to Cyril Grayson on the final drive for the game-winning touchdown against the Jets, as the Bucs avoided an embarrassing loss to stay in the hunt for the top seed in the NFC.