It has been quite the year for All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown. After finally getting his demands to be let go by the Pittsburgh Steelers, he was traded to the Oakland Raiders, who, under the helm of Jon Gruden, looked like a team that could finally be taken seriously again.

Once arriving in Oakland, Brown had a positive attitude. He was excited about the change and was ready to begin training camp. However, his start to training camp was delayed due to him getting frostbite in a cryotherapy mishap.

After this Raiders fans were happy to see him back at camp, only for him to leave halfway through his first day back and then be absent for two weeks protesting the NFL’s ban on his 10-year old Schutt Air Advantage helmet that he’d been wearing for most of his career. 

At this point, Brown lost his first of tow grievances with the NFL about his old helmet and in response to this fled Napa, the home of Raiders training camp, once more, which was not taken lightly by Raiders general manager Mike Mayock. 

Mayock hit Brown with a $40,000 fine for an unexcused absence from the team. At this time, the Raiders organization were beginning to get fed up with Brown’s actions and Mayock was reported saying that it’s time for Brown to be “all-in, or all-out.” 

Brown from this point on was causing the Raiders havoc. After receiving a $40,000 fine and another $13,950 from Mayock, Brown posted a picture on his Instagram with a caption saying, “When your own team want [sic] to hate.”

Brown later got into a heated exchange with Mayock on the practice field and also in the locker room. After this incident, there were reports that Brown would be suspended for his actions. 

After a constant back and forth between Brown and the Raiders, and even a leaking a phone call with coach Jon Gruden, asked to be released from the team via Instagram. At this point, it was clear that he didn’t want to stay a Raider, and the team felt the same way.

At noon that same day Brown got his wish, he was released from the Raiders and became a free agent. Brown didn’t remain a free agent very long, as he signed a one-year contract just days later with the New England Patriots.

Before he was even able to talk to the press about his new threads, he was accused of sexual assault by a former trainer, and then later was accused of sexual misconduct by an artist working at one of his homes.

Despite the claims to his name he began the process of changing teams and was looking forward to becoming a patriot. Meanwhile, he was losing sponsors by the second. Xenith, the new helmet company he had recently partnered with not to long before ended their partnership with Brown. Not too long after that, Nike dropped Brown as a spokesperson, leaving him without his top sponsor. 

Just one day later, the New England Patriots made the decision to drop Brown, ultimately leaving him without a team. That came just two weeks after signing him, and one week after playing his first game with the Patriots.

After all this Brown sent out a series of tweets thanking the Patriots but then talked about how he was fed up with the NFL and how some things can be swept under the rug, as he alluded to past scandals similar to his, but his was put into the forefront and then proceeded to announce his retirement from the NFL all together.

This leaves many people wondering if is this really the end for Antonio Brown? For the time being it seems that it is. As we await to see the outcomes of his multiple accusations, Brown has re-enrolled in has alma matter Western Michigan University.

Taking a step back and looking at his whole situation, it seems that Brown was never fully committed to the Raiders. It’s been made clear that he never accepted the reality of where he ended up and never bought into the Gruden’s system. 

While it seems that he’s all but thrown his career out the window he handled it with almost little to no professionalism, and it caught up to him. While he was a great player, putting up numbers as if it was a videogame, it was all about him. If he wasn’t the best where he was, he couldn’t play there. 

But what will he do? He claims that he doesn’t need football, but football needs him. Yet at the end of the day, he is jobless. We won’t know for certain if this is the end of Antonio Brown. Maybe he’ll try to launch a comeback one day, maybe that’ll be the day where he needs football again. 

For now, it seems all but distant for him, and that he’s trying to walk away instead of trying to fix it. This could be what he wanted, but no one can know for certain, no one can know why we just are going to wait and see how the saga will really end for Antonio Brown.