Antonio Brown claims Bucs offered him $200K to be quiet

Antonio Brown claims that the Tampa Bay Bucs offered him $200,000 to seek mental health treatment and not to “spin this any other way.”

The stories behind Antonio Brown’s dramatic fracture with the Buccaneers continue to unravel in unexpected ways.

Brown and his lawyer Sean Burstyn made an appearance on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumble this week, claiming Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians lied about the circumstances of his departure and the team tried to silence him with money.

Adam Schefter posted the clip including an array of interesting accusations.

Antonio Brown says the Bucs offered him $200,000 for treatment

The subject of Brown’s mental health brought up the newest claims from the wide receiver.

“To the extent any of that is coming from a spin that Antonio had a spontaneous mental episode, it’s resentful and it’s hurtful and it’s a disservice to people who do suffer from mental health challenges,” Burstyn said of the idea that Brown needs mental health treatment.

That’s when Brown dropped the bombshell.

“Yeah, these guys at Tampa Bay Bucs trying to make an agreement to give me $200,000 to go to the crazy house so these guys could look like they knew what they were talking about,” Brown said.

Burstyn clarified what the $200,000 was for.

“The offer was Antonio would basically sit on the sidelines, go on some list and commit himself to some form of intensive mental health treatment,” Burstyn said. “And we were specifically told in writing by the general manager, twice, ‘don’t spin this any other way’.”

The question for Tampa Bay is how they viewed that offer. Was it an attempt to get Brown to go along with a narrative or was it a genuine attempt make sure the receiver got needed mental health care?

As to the circumstances that led to Brown’s departure from the Bucs, he said Arians lied about their sideline dispute being about targets.

“Tom Brady is my guy, he’s the reason I’m on Tampa Bay so I know I’m going to get the ball,” Brown said. He claims he tried to take himself out of the game because of the pain in his ankle and Arians told him to get off the field.

Brown’s lawyers also said his medical records show team doctors regularly injected the receiver with a powerful painkiller, to the point he couldn’t feel the damage he was doing to his ankle.