Antonio Brown’s tenure as a member of the Oakland Raiders could not be getting off to a weirder start. First came the pictures of his mangled feet, then the reports that said mangling occurred when he stepped into a cryotherapy chamber barefoot and got frostbite. Now, things have taken an even stranger turn. According to multiple reports, the real reason Brown has been missing from training camp recently is not because his feet are screwed up, but because he is throwing a fit over which helmet he gets to use. Not only that, this tantrum may never end.
The backstory is that the NFL recently changed its equipment regulations, which means that a certain style of helmet is no longer approved for players to use. That old model of helmet, which Brown has been wearing his whole career, no longer meets the league’s required safety standards, and so he will have to play with a new model this year.
This afternoon, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Brown had filed a grievance with the league in an attempt to keep his preferred helmet. Schefter further reported that Brown’s current absence from training camp “has more to do with his helmet than with his feet.” Following up on Schefter’s report was NFL.com’s Mike Silver, who brought some wild details to the table:
But wait! It gets crazier! Here comes Schefter with one of the most hilarious scoops in NFL history:
The Raiders haven’t even played their first preseason game, and Antonio Brown has already suffered one of the strangest self-inflicted injuries in sports history, left the team because he is upset about helmets, and is now threatening to stop playing football forever unless he gets his old helmet back. So everything’s going great!