The action in the third quarter was both dramatic and mysterious. Because normally no football player freaks out on the edge of the field, demonstratively removes his jersey and shoulder pads and trots with a bare torso into the changing room. Especially not when your own team is behind in an important game and you are one of the central figures in the coach's offensive plans. This is contradicted not only by the corps spirit among the almost 2000 professionals in the NFL, but also by the commercial reality. As in the case of Antonio Brown, the 33-year-old wide receiver for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who won the Super Bowl last February.

His contract with the club provides for a relatively low base salary of just under 900,000 euros for the current season. Another two million euros are tied to a package of performance bonuses, which, however, depend on numerous imponderables. Because how many balls he catches or touchdowns he produces is not in the hands of an attacking player like Brown in the well-written team sport of football. The coaches decide about such a thing depending on the tactical calculation. And the quarterback carries out the order. Unless the opposing defense thwarted the hatched turn.

In the penultimate encounter of the regular season, the sprinting Brown was not just about a million euros, which he could still earn according to the bonus list, but also about his health.

Which is why a dispute broke out on the sidelines between him and the coaching staff after the wide receiver had been used in several attacks.

Brown had sustained an ankle injury weeks earlier and was still not feeling fit enough.

He therefore refused to return to the field.

Fake Covid vaccination card

However, even less than two days after the events escalated and the professional footballer was quasi fired by head coach Bruce Arians (“He's no longer a Buccaneer, okay?”) It is neither clear who is responsible for the dispute, nor how the matter will end. In the meantime, the league has even been involved, in whose disciplinary department there is already more than one folder with the name Antonio Brown. For example, he was banned from the NFL for eight games in 2020 on the basis of a moral clause after his former fitness trainer made allegations of sexual abuse. A cause that the two had recently settled as part of an out-of-court settlement.

Since then, legal disputes with a marketing company about their payment and judicial fights with the driver of a removal company caused further frowns.

Rounded off by the disclosure of his private chef a few weeks ago that Brown had obtained a forged Covid vaccination card.

For this he was punished again by the league.

This time the ban was three matches.

Quarterback Tom Brady, who despite his 44 years still plays outstandingly and became the most important factor for the Super Bowl success after his move to the Buccaneers in 2020, still does not want to break the baton over Brown.

After the incident on Sunday, he asked for sympathy: “This is obviously a difficult situation.

We should all look for ways to help him. "

Brady obviously doesn't think the Buccaneers will play a role in this relief effort. The club should not be ready to publicly expose the sufficiently annoyed head coach Arians shortly before the play-offs and to force him to work with Brown. The simplest solution - termination without notice - does not look like an attractive solution either. Not only can such a step lead to labor law disputes. The wide receiver could be committed at that moment by any other team, provided that they trust themselves to integrate it into the existing structure.

However: The experience with Brown at the Pittsburgh Steelers, which in 2019 frustrated passed him on to the Raiders who were then still based in Oakland, and the episode with the Raiders, which threw him out without notice after he got into an ugly verbal argument with the chief manager there, will be remembered by some.

Brown seems to be on the way to becoming an absolute persona non grata.