Mark Madden: Will Antonio Brown play another NFL snap?

Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians, ex of this parish, issued a hard “no” on the possibility of Antonio Brown playing for his team: “I just know him, and it’s not a fit in our locker room.”

Arians’ most damning words: “I just know him.”

After what’s transpired since Brown left the Steelers after the 2018 season, everyone knows him.

At 31, Brown should have a few good years left. But it’s hard to envision a scenario in which any NFL team sees Brown as even remotely employable now that Tom Brady has forsaken him.

Brown clearly overestimated his bond with Brady after the two were briefly teammates in New England. Rumors swirled that Brown would tag along wherever Brady signed. But Arians put that to rest decisively, and a receiving corps of Mike Evans and Chris Godwin made Brown surplus to requirements at any rate.

Brown, happy as the No. 3 receiver? Ha!

But make no mistake: If Brady insisted, Brown would be a Buccaneer.

Brown’s career has reached the point where it’s very legit to wonder if he’s played his last NFL snap.

It’s impossible to imagine any NFL team thinking that reward outweighs risk when it comes to signing Brown.

Giving him any sort of sizable guarantee would be foolhardy, never mind lengthy term.

Giving Brown a one-year deal at the veteran minimum wouldn’t work, either. Brown sees no need to prove himself and would feel cheated and unhappy from the get-go.

Give Brown a host of incentives, and he would fume every single play he didn’t get the ball.

Put Brown on a bad team, or with a bad quarterback who can’t get him the ball properly and often, and he’s a ticking time bomb.

All it takes is one team who thinks Brown can put it over the top. But that idea failed in New England.

All it takes is one coach who thinks he can fix Brown. But what coach in his right mind could possibly believe that?

A civil suit against Brown for sexual assault is still pending, as is the NFL’s investigation thereof. Brown can’t be suspended or put on the commissioner’s exempt list by the NFL until he’s under contract.

That’s league policy and totally logical, yet a bit unfair to Brown (if anything is in his self-created purgatory).

There are any number of reasons to not sign Brown, but the cherry on top is the uncertainly of his status once a deal is agreed. How long will Brown be banned? Why would a team want him when it doesn’t know how many games he’ll have to miss?

Perhaps the NFL should break from its usual standard and, once its investigation is complete, determine how many games Brown must sit pending his re-entry into the league.

But if the NFL doesn’t, that’s understandable. Why should the league go out of its way for a chronic problem child? It’s another problem of Brown’s making.

Brown taped private conversations with Oakland coach Jon Gruden and made them public.

Brown also made public an exchange of Twitter DMs with JuJu Smith-Schuster.

Brown took Facebook Live inside the Steelers locker room, enraging coach Mike Tomlin.

Brown physically menaced 61-year-old Oakland GM Mike Mayock, referring to him by a racial slur in the process. (Which hasn’t stopped Brown from frequently playing the race card.)

Brown disparaged owner Robert Kraft after things went sideways in New England.

Brown froze his feet. He made a huge fuss because the NFL declared his helmet illegal.

Brown got dropped as a client by Drew Rosenhaus, the greediest agent in football history.

Brown no-showed Week 17 in 2018, his last season with the Steelers.

Brown blamed Ben Roethlisberger for his troubles and stabbed him in the back countless times.

Brown put up big numbers but never won and doesn’t care that he never won. That’s not even a slight concern.

You got the sycophantic entourage, the camera crew, unpaid debts and all the legal issues past and present.

All of Brown’s sponsors dropped him, including Nike and Pepsi.

The better Brown got, the more of a distraction he became. This past season, he was just a distraction.

That’s why Arians said what he said and took a hard pass.

Some (including me) said Tomlin gave Brown too much leeway. As it turned out, Tomlin should get a lifetime achievement award for Best Coach Ever, because he kept Brown on the field and producing.

Brown is football’s version of a war criminal. If he never plays in the NFL again, no one should feel he got a raw deal.