Despite Bill Belichick's signing of Antonio Brown looking more indefensible by the day, the the four-time All-Pro wide receiver remains on the New England Patriots roster, and all signs point to him suiting up against the New York Jets on Sunday. The whole situation is all the proof you need that organizations have no problem looking the other way for a player as talented as Brown.
The latest news in the Brown saga broke late Thursday night, when Sports Illustrated's Robert Klemko revealed some questionable text messages that were allegedly sent from Brown to one of Brown's accusers who spoke to Klemko for his story about Brown's disturbing history, which was published last week. Klemko posted the screenshots he received on Twitter, later saying he's "extremely confident" they came from Brown:
Apparently, these messages were sent in a group chat, which included Brown's accuser, his attorney and one of his assistants. Brilliant move. And by brilliant we mean incredibly dumb.
Obviously, these texts were brought to Belichick's attention on Friday, and he prepared himself for the barrage of questions he was going to receive at his press conference. To open, the Hoodie went with the ol' "I'm not going to have any comment on any off-the-field situations, so no questions on that." The problem with that, as Belichick knows, is that he's not allowed to dictate what the media can and cannot ask him. Naturally, every single question that was asked was about Brown, and Belichick did his best to deflect and say "I'll answer any football questions you have." It actually lasted way longer than I thought it would:
If you had him answering over 4.5 questions, cash those tickets!
But seriously, it's amazing this thing lasted longer than three minutes, not to mention the fact he actually gave more than one-word answers instead of saying "New York...New York.... New York" like that time he just kept saying "...Seattle...Seattle" to a reporter asking about his relationship with Donald Trump. The funny thing about Belichick asking them to ask him football questions is that he doesn't even want to answer those either. If he could, he'd just keep repeating the word "football" to them until they stopped asking him questions.
As much as we enjoy the entertainment Belichick press conference provide, this one was loaded with cringe. These are some serious allegations against Brown, and Belichick is literally running away from questions about his star wideout. Talent trumps all, I guess. Bill is on to .... his office, where he'll be locking the door:
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