Antonio Brown is likely to remain unemployed for the time being, despite the fact that Tom Brady has a new team. That squashing of any rumor that the two very brief co-workers would reunite in Brady's new town was provided by reporter Ian Rapoport during Thursday's Free Agency Frenzy on NFL Network. During that appearance, Rapoport said that there was a sense Brady wanted the team he was signing with to also add Brown. But, alas, it appears as though Bucs head coach Bruce Arians wasn't super into that idea.
"No, there's definitely some sense that Tom Brady would want to bring Antonio Brown with him," Rapoport said. "This from some of the other teams that were potentially in the mix. What really wasn't a secret Brady and AB have remained close. My understanding is this is not something that Bruce Arians is in favor of. He's had Antonio Brown before. He had him a couple of years in Pittsburgh. Does not sound like it went well. This does not seem to be like the direction that the Bucs would be going."
Last season Brady and Brown were teammates for all of one game in New England before the wideout was released following further allegations of sexual assault coming out against him.
As for Arians, just a little over a year ago, he called Brown a "diva." In full context it wasn't the worst thing ever, but Arians (who was the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh during Brown's first two seasons there) maintained that Brown has racked up too much baggage since then.
"There's too much miscommunication, too much ... diva," the coach said in 2019. "I've heard so many stories -- I like Antonio -- he plays as hard as anybody on Sunday, and he practices hard. He's just gotta make better decisions off the field, be on time, do some of those little things."
That prompted this Twitter response from Brown.
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Rapoport's two cents isn't the final say, obviously, but the Bucs' current crop of wide receivers (see: Mike Evans and Chris Godwin) is very solid. Brown's also still facing a lingering suspension. In either event, it clearly wasn't a deal breaker for Brady.
