During this week's Let's Go! podcast, Tom Brady spoke at length about Antonio Brown and his thoughts on the entire situation. On the topic of Brown's abrupt exit in the third quarter against the Jets on Sunday, he said he didn't really know what happened until after the game.
“I didn’t understand kind of what was happening until after the game,” Brady said. “I didn’t understand what transpired and I saw after the game Mike [Evans] was trying to talk to Antonio and so was O.J. [Howard]. And I know Bruce [Arians] was also. Again, it was just a very difficult situation for everybody involved.”
After the game, Brady said he and the team all loved Brown and he echoed the sentiment on the podcast.
“I’ve known Antonio for a couple years now, you know, pretty closely,” he said. “We’ve obviously been teammates and I would just say I love him, I care about him, and I have a lot of compassion. I have a lot of empathy for the things that are happening in his life. So, it’s a lot of challenges we all face from time to time. I think the best thing is to have a support system, even outside of football, because again, yeah, we are football players, we’re athletes, we give everything we can on the field, but we also have off field lives, too. And I’m gonna continue to do everything I can to try to be a great friend and supportive to Antonio and the things he’s going through.”
The Buccaneers quarterback went on to list other professional athletes in various sports who have publicly dealt with mental health issues that include gymnast Simone Biles, tennis player Naomi Osaka and Falcons wide receiver Calvin Ridley.
“It’s definitely more prevalent than we used to think,” Brady said. “You know, we used to think that we were just all, you know, robots out there and we’d go out there and play and it’s more than that now. And I think there’s a recognition of that and we’re all... there’s a humanity to everything that we’re doing out there. It’s very comforting to know that people are seeing athletes in deeper ways than just their potential on the field as well.”
Tampa Bay has reportedly not released Brown even though Bruce Arians said he is "no longer a Buc” after Sunday's win.
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