It appears it’s time to send Raiders wide receiver Antonio Brown back to your fantasy bench for Week 1. The latest chapter in one of the more bizarre sagas in the modern NFL saw the Raiders void $29 million worth of guarantees in Brown’s contract for conduct detrimental to the team, along with issuing him a $215,000 fine, all stemming from an alleged incident between Brown and Raiders general manager Mike Mayock. ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington tweeted Saturday that Brown emailed him and said that without the guarantees in his contract, he wasn’t going to play.
While no length of time for his absence was mentioned, a part of the reason Brown wanted out of Pittsburgh this offseason was the lack of guaranteed money remaining in the five-year deal he signed with the Steelers in 2017.
Brown laid into that issue, as well as others concerning his former team, in an interview with Darlington this spring.
With that, the entire scenario now becomes a holdout. The Raiders have the ability to fine Brown for his lack of presence at mandatory team functions, obviously including games and practices leading into the team’s Week 1 showdown with the division rival Denver Broncos. If Brown holds firm, however, the team has no obligation to pay him, and with a previous stance that they won’t owe him termination pay, the Raiders might end up not paying Brown at all.
But it will have come at an extremely high cost.
