It’s official. A.B. is in T.B. with TB 12.
Antonio Brown is a Tampa Bay Buccaneer. The former Steelers All-Pro is now on his third team since forcing his way out of Pittsburgh at the end of the 2018 season.
It’s been known that the Bucs were planning on signing Brown since the weekend. And the franchise made the announcement Tuesday with a fairly generic tweet.
We've signed WR Antonio Brown.
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 27, 2020
: https://t.co/xKFuG95PlV pic.twitter.com/ZsC758T3tm
They also had an understated post on the team website. It included no statements from Brown, general manager Jason Licht, or Brown’s agent Tom Bra … oops, sorry … Brown’s former New England teammate Tom Brady.
The only quotes were from head coach Bruce Arians, and they were recycled from postgame comments made following Tampa Bay’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders.
“It’s an insurance policy,” said Arians. “When we don’t have (current Buccaneer receivers) Mike (Evans) and we don’t have Chris (Godwin), why not have another Pro Bowl-caliber player that’s available and fits everything we need? So why not? We have good players, and you can’t have enough of them.”
The story even went so far as to placate Evans and Godwin as quickly as possible. Both were mentioned in the sub-heading of the post. And Evans was mentioned in the first sentence before Brown’s name was even printed, as if to make Brown appear to be a complementary piece.
So you can see that the Bucs organization is clearly fearing that Mr. Big Chest is capable of rocking their 5-2 boat before he even puts on a uniform.
Which, by the way, will sport No. 81 on the back. He was No. 84 in Pittsburgh and Oakland. He wore No. 17 for his lone game in New England the first time he was with Brady.
Meanwhile, Brown remains silent on social media. An action once thought virtually impossible. Perhaps that was a condition of his signing. Written, or otherwise.
Brown’s signing comes at a good time for the Bucs. He won’t be eligible to play this week versus the New York Giants. But he will be allowed to suit up next week versus the New Orleans Saints.
On primetime. For “Sunday Night Football.” Go figure.
And Godwin has a broken finger. He’ll miss at least the Giants game, if not more. So maybe that “insurance policy” Arians was referring to will come in handy right away.
Whenever Brown does do his first interview with Tampa Bay media, if he has any sense of humor at all, he should wear one of those Kangol — or is it “Kangoo”? — hats he once mocked Arians for wearing.
Oh, and Arians should only refer to Brown as “Ronald” moving forward.
