The Oakland Raiders can finally move on without Antonio Brown after granting him his request to be released on Saturday.
Brown requested his release early Saturday on Instagram, unhappy that the Raiders fined him more than $215,000 for conduct detrimental to the team, and that they voided more than $29 million in guarantees.
But if we’re being objective here, Brown brought all this on himself with a series of troubling behavior that reportedly included a scuffle with teammates who had to hold him back from going after general manager Mike Mayock. He also released a strange video on Friday night after being given a free pass for that incident with Mayock.
When Oakland traded for Brown, it always seemed like a matter of “when,” not “if” Brown would create havoc like he did in Pittsburgh. But nobody could have predicted things would get so bad, so fast.
Now the question is, can the Raiders keep him from signing elsewhere? Just as salient, will any team take a risk on a player who has now burned bridges with two NFL teams in less than a full calendar year?