2021 Bucs Coach Wants Antonio Brown To Play This Season
April 23rd, 2022
Furniture-hurling, bicycle-throwing receiver Antonio Brown impressed a lot of people at One Buc Palace last season, despite his historic nonsense in January.
A Tampa Bay assistant coach in 2021, A.Q. Shipley also played center for the Bucs with Brown during the Super Bowl season. Shipley visited The Pat McAfee Show this week and the subject of Brown arose.
To Joe’s surprise, Shipley, a 12-year NFL veteran, went right into an appreciative tone for all that Brown gave the Bucs on a daily basis.
“It’s such an unfortunate thing. He’s such a good player. He worked harder than almost anyone I’ve ever seen, like honestly. Practices super hard,” Shipley began, before explaining that Brown didn’t take rest breaks in practice.
“He never took a period off. Like if the offense was off, you know typically you’re catching your breath waiting for the next period of practice, he’s grabbing Tom and going and running routes in the end zone. He’s grabbing Tom and working on hots and sights. Whatever it is. Or he’s over at the Juggs machine catching another 50 balls. He works so hard. You can never say a bad word about that.
“I think you’ve probably heard plenty of people say that you kind of wish that [the blowup with Bucco Bruce Arians] didn’t escalate as quickly as it did. And I think I would echo that statement. But it is what it is. It happened the way it is. It’s unfortunate. Hopefully he gets another shot.”
Bucs quarterback coach Clyde Christensen was the first Bucs assistant coach to come out and say Brown getting kicked off the team was “too quick and too severe.”
That was in late January. It seems Shipley, who left the Bucs coaching staff in February to be a full-time family man in Arizona with his three young kids, feels just like Christensen does.
Joe had no problem with Arians launching Brown when he did. There were no guarantees that Brown wouldn’t have made things worse for the team by sticking around. But it’s interesting to hear Bucs coaches feel so uneasy about the decision.
Joe wonders what Tom Brady thought.
April 23rd, 2022 at 9:59 pm
After reading that I can’t say I’m mad Shipley is no longer part of the Buccaneers.
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:00 pm
With BA gone maybe TB reworked his deal to get Brown and Gronk signed haha
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:11 pm
There’s no room for mental causes like AB on the Bucs. BA did the right thing – you can’t Candon that behavior and maintain credibility with the other players.
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:20 pm
AB worked hard, but then he quit on his team. Eff that guy
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:23 pm
No No No!!!!
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:41 pm
Nobody made better fake covid cards either…
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:42 pm
…except maybe Mike Edwards ?
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:43 pm
He would of been injured for playoffs anyway, if we want that so bad how about we trade up in the draft and get a top end receiver or just get one at #27 whatever–we need to move on, he is not worth the bullsht
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:43 pm
He made great covid vac cards
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:43 pm
Brown didn’t make them. Mr. Last Chance U made ’em.
April 23rd, 2022 at 10:54 pm
@Joe
Antonio Brown is old news. Enough with the articles about him on this site, please….
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:04 pm
Joe thinks it is interesting to learn the perspective of offensive assistants to the Brown incident, especially since that very well could have cost the Bucs a Super Bowl. So no, it is not old news to Joe.
Besides, there are thousands and thousands of stories you may read in Joe’s free archives if you do not want to read about Antonio Brown.
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:25 pm
Not just related to this article, but I get the sense A.Q. is probably not welcome into any top secret meetings or inner discussions about important Franchise matters.
When they say, “one ‘source’ I talked to w/ the Bucs had this to say….(insert information you don’t want the public to hear)”, I bet good money A.Q. is one of those “sources”. Just a sneaking suspicion I get and could definitely be wrong. In fact, I’d love to be wrong about that IF so.
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:32 pm
“A scorpion asks a frog to carry him over a river. The frog is afraid of being stung, but the scorpion argues that if it did so, both would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog then agrees, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature.”
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:38 pm
Would you let a guy come to work for Joe Bucs fan, openly defy you, disrupt your business for his own selfish ends, curse you out and quit publicly right when you need him, then beg him to come back because he is talented and works hard (when he wants to)? Like it or not a Head Coach has to be the parent to his team. If you people let your children do whatever the hell they want, that says a lot.
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:55 pm
Kind of tired of AQ running his mouth
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:57 pm
I hope he catches in somewhere.
I wanna see what he pulls for an encore.
April 23rd, 2022 at 11:59 pm
Anyone who believes BA handled the AB situation properly, should ask Andrew Adams. Arians was a joke last year, and his multiple sideline outbursts made it plain for everyone to see. Does anyone remember him chewing out Brady as well? BA was a man unhinged. Maybe get off the golf cart, maybe have the pulse of your team, maybe don’t play obviously injured starters. Had AB played in that home divisional loss, you probably have another superbowl. I’d bet cash money that Brady blames BA for how things went down. It’s why BA is a consultant, and not HC.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:05 am
Joe has been pretty clear he thinks Antonio Brown (not unlike DeSean Jackson) is an a-hole.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:06 am
I’d also venture that the vast majority of you BA sycophants, think he did everything properly last year, and AB was bound to blow up at some point. You probably also believe that Brady didn’t push the ole man out. Sure
April 24th, 2022 at 12:11 am
Yea yea yea, if the Packer’s head coach didn’t kick a FG and hand Brady the ball.
The Cinderella story goes both ways.
Eat them apples. I’m glad AB got the boot cuz you don’t rock the boat cuz one bad apple can play. Cancer kills.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:13 am
AB is an ass, no doubt about it. Nobody here is defending AB. We’re just not exculpating Arians behavior. The league is full of guys like AB, anyone of which you’d take in a microsecond.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:22 am
lambchop, it must hurt to cheer for a chocking dog like Rodgers. Turns out, all that douche was interested in was money. It’s probably why he’s only won a single Superbowl, and Brady 7. He was plenty happy signing a deal that sent his single best weapon to Vegas. Keep hanging those shares of the Packers.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:23 am
AB nailed a chick that licks toilet seats
And wears rain boots and a black bag over his head
He’s from the pit not the palace
Run it
Style it
Resign him
Kumbaya
April 24th, 2022 at 12:42 am
I’d like him to play… with himself… like David Carradine did. Make the world a better place, Antonio!
April 24th, 2022 at 1:20 am
Bring him back……and we ready ready! With AB the Bucs are “DIFFERENT”!
April 24th, 2022 at 1:36 am
Bring back AB. Godwin is a no show this year. Go get Deebo.
April 24th, 2022 at 1:53 am
Antonio Brown is a great athlete but a terrible person and teammate.
You can’t allow a person like this on your team. Even teammates that support you will start to get tired of your antics after a while.
April 24th, 2022 at 2:16 am
I don’t think this is old news at all! I think this may be the story of the decade. Was the rift between Brady and Arians over the way he handled AB? I agree, the stupid, selfish act by AB sunk the Bucs ship, but in the same breath the man did give his all 100% of the time, he deserves respect. BA obviously never wanted AB and he was only on the team Bc of Brady. There in lies your rift from the very beginning. Speculation abounds!
April 24th, 2022 at 5:22 am
Agree with anonymous 100 %. No question AB is talented and is a hard worker, but he also was like an undiscovered landmine that will blow with a some pressure on it. BA went along with it because Brady wanted him ,but his blowup hurt the team, and deflated the teams chances of repeating with another super bowl win. AB had a similar problem in Pittsburg because he made a big fuss over Ju Ju Shuster getting the ball too much, in his opinion. With all his quick exits from a number of other teams BA’s instinct on AB was proven correct.
April 24th, 2022 at 6:29 am
No way…when you put on a humiliating act on public display while representing your organization your ass is gone I dont care who you are. Should not even be a thought.Hard work doesn’t purchase the right to act a damn fool…
April 24th, 2022 at 6:43 am
Com on man,BA forewarned AB before he allowed him to sign with the team that if he display any antics or behaviors like he did with past teams, he will be booted off the team. Unless a person pose imminent danger to AB’s life, u don’t go AWOL by abandoning ur fellow soldier in the middle of war. In theory, real game time, a logical n unselfish person will stay the course n address the matter afterwards. Does AQ or other coaches believe a soldier that demonstrates impeccable training habits by working hard n taking no breaks in training should work that hard only to go to war n quit by walking off leaving his fellow soldier? Quit trying to justify selfishness, narcissism, n stupidity that’s embedded in one’s nature.
April 24th, 2022 at 7:22 am
Working hard is only part of being a good NFL player & teammate….rosters are full of players that work hard and there are many who didn’t make a NFL roster that work hard.
Outright public insubordination will get you canned most anywhere.
For those who hope he gets another chance….he’s had several of them.
April 24th, 2022 at 7:42 am
You have TWO assistant coaches saying in a politically correct way Brown was NOT totally to blame. You imbeciles that say he quit are BA bias. The man was told he was off the team and to get the F out of here. What don’t you get BA threw him off the team same as if your boss told you at work you’re done get the F out. You may not take your shirt and do jumping Jack’s (that does make him a bit different) but you ain’t staying at work. If BA stayed home from covid like he was supposed to AB may still be on the team. TWO coaches and not one person other than BA blamed AB for the mishap.
April 24th, 2022 at 9:01 am
This story is more about Shipley than it is about Brown. Wasn’t it rumored that Shipley was the anonymous source who started the narrative that Brady and Arians didn’t get along and that Arians would red pen the game plan. And now he’s saying Arians handled the Brown situation poorly. All this coming from a guy no longer with the team supposedly because he wants to be a full-time family man. Sounds more like a bitter ex-employee wanting revenge on his old boss. By doing this Shipley is exposing who he really is. Glad the Bucs showed him the door just as Arians rightfully showed Brown the door!
April 24th, 2022 at 9:18 am
I am not a doctor but I do believe the guy is mentally ill. You can’t count on him, he has shown that every place he has been. I wish him well in life but not with my team. Move on.
April 24th, 2022 at 9:27 am
Terrell Owens was a hard worker and a great receiver too. But, like AB, he was also a live grenade that could go off at any time and blow up your team. And the risk/ reward becomes more unfavorable the older they get.
April 24th, 2022 at 9:58 am
“There were no guarantees that Brown wouldn’t have made things worse for the team by sticking around.”
How would he have made things worse? By catching TDs? This offense sucked without AB and Godwin.
The rest of the receivers we had (except Evans) stunk or were injured.
Miller, Darden and Johnson are not going to get it done and Perriman is always injured.
I’m not putting 100% of the blame on BA but I bet if Bowles was the head coach this situation would have went differently…
April 24th, 2022 at 10:04 am
AB has a Dr Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde personality. Maybe he uses recreational drugs that affect him negatively? Who knows?
Great player, but no excuse for what he did.
April 24th, 2022 at 10:14 am
Hire back AB with a No Drama incentive contract only.
April 24th, 2022 at 10:17 am
Should’ve taken a break. That Florida sun boiled his brain like an egg. Zero chance.
I look at Wyatt and say omg he’s so good, but then you look at his record and he already has a bunch of violent charges and it’s like, that will magically change after you give him a significant amount of money.
April 24th, 2022 at 10:33 am
AQueen completely backstabbed Arians at the end of their Buc tenures. Arians plucked him off the waiver wire/scrap heap and got him a ring in 2020…only to have him be “a source with knowledge” undermining BA. Bye AQ…enjoy that carpool/pick up line at school. Maybe he can get in with the cool kids in junior high.
April 24th, 2022 at 11:02 am
I guess every other Coach who elected to do his job and put the team ahead of a talented loose cannon player who demands being catered to w as wrong too. The number reason AB has behaves the way he does is his talent ( and maybe hard work), has always allowed him to skirt accountability for his actions. It’s always someone else’s fault or he is always being treated unfairly…. Maybe if he had more men like Coach Arians in his life earlier to hold him accountable for his actions, he would have been much better served. The world is full of talented people who never sustained the success they should have because they lacked self discipline. No player, no matter how great he plays is bigger than the team
April 24th, 2022 at 11:31 am
AB QUIT on his team, the fans, and The GOAT. Shipley must be suffering from a closed head injury, because telling us AB works his tail off in practice only reinforces that the fact that he is such a liability because does not play the way he practices. Looking forward to a time when the WR position is as devalued as the RB position is. So tired of these entitled divas and their drama. The talent keeps getting better every draft class. QB money should go to the signal caller, and not manbaby that complains about not getting the ball enough, or that is always going to second guess the adults in charge. Dont worry about AB, he will still be around making mistakes until he makes his last one and we never have to hear about him again.
April 24th, 2022 at 11:31 am
ABs Weekend Headline: “Cringeworthy video of Antonio Brown awkwardly performing his new rap songs for unexcited crowd goes viral”
ABs downward spiral is intensifying and I’m enjoying every minute of it.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:02 pm
I 100% agreed with Arians’s decision. AB is a classless douch bag.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:14 pm
If he practiced soooo hard throughout the week surely his ankle or foot would have given AB some kind of pain signal that he wasn’t ready to play against the Jets.
That never happened.
April 24th, 2022 at 12:38 pm
This is the guy who is feeding Rich Hornberger his gossip.
April 24th, 2022 at 1:02 pm
So all you Shipley haters now, I guess Christianson is full of shat to and BA, the ONLY person on the team to 100% blame AB. Karen Roger’s, Hill, DK Metcalf, Donald, Murray, Wilson, Mayfield, etc. The league is full of drama queens. The difference is the other coaches know how to defuse the situation. Contrary to popular belief AB did nothing wrong in NE, he did not let the team down. The hypocrite rub & tug Kraft dumped him over a text because he wasn’t good for his image. Definition of irony. He never played a game in Vegas and yes he screwed Pittsburg.
April 24th, 2022 at 2:37 pm
Antonio brown is a good player and puts tons of effort into practice and he did good for us in the superbowl. But the guy is an egomaniac and cares only for himself not the team. He walked out on the team when he could have sat down and waited until after the game to discuss the issues with his injury but he lashes out like a spoiled little kid to get attention and this team doesn’t need that at all. I was happy when he came and worked hard to get a superbowl ring and until his injury he was doing well but he does have some mental issues and he refuses to believe or get it checked out. He is trying to find a place to play but honestly know one wants him. And it would be best for him to find a new career cause he burned the bridge on this one.
April 24th, 2022 at 2:37 pm
Shipley is not the only employee who suddenly quit “to spend more time with my family.”
Wanna bet he was the one with loose lips…and management knew it?
April 24th, 2022 at 2:38 pm
AB does not belong in the NFL. His time is up. The Bucs need to move on. AB has no say on how this team goes. The Bucs would be foolish to sign him
It is also for the team to get a new young receiver in the draft.
April 24th, 2022 at 2:44 pm
AB is a high risk high reward player but way too much baggage. Bucs are better off without him.
April 24th, 2022 at 3:33 pm
I heard on Rick Stroud’s podcast that the Bucs refused to guarantee AB’s incentives after his fake vaccine card suspension and that spiraled him, culminating in the blow up at the Jets game.
If that’s true it’s super shortsighted and cheap that they did that, and probably cost the team a Super Bowl.
Wrote about denying the guaranteed incentives at the time. Unclear how A.B. would have behaved if he actually had those incentives guaranteed. Team probably wanted to have that reachable carrot out there. –Joe
April 24th, 2022 at 4:01 pm
Good riddens AB is gone!!!!!!!! NO ROOM FOR QUITTERS on the Buc’s Team!!!! Oh, let’s not forget about Rojo Too!!
April 24th, 2022 at 4:02 pm
Stupid take. Nobody ever ever said Brown didn’t work hard, or wasn’t a great receiver. He’s just not a team player. He always makes bad choices and couldn’t even wait for Brady to throw him the ball. If I recall, Gronk didn’t make his incentives until the last set of downs last year. Brown wanted his incentives even though Tampa was losing the whole game.NOT A TEAM PLAYER.
April 24th, 2022 at 4:02 pm
Foot note…both players could be SO GREAT if they weren’t QUITTERS!!!
April 24th, 2022 at 9:35 pm
I think the dude was on something at the end I mean did you see his interviews after. We needed Antonio Clown for the playoffs He let us all down I hope he is done!!
April 24th, 2022 at 10:46 pm
Brown had to be kicked. Your talent is no good to me if you do the sh*t AB has done in his career. He’s a team destroyer.
Let AB destroy another team.
As a footnote, the bonuses he could have earned last year would have been a pittance if h had not thrown his temper tantrum because he wasn’t getting enough targets. He plays through the Jets game, two more in regular season and four post season games to win a second Super Bowl with the Bucs. Then this off season he would have been able to cash in big with another team.
He may have murdered his own career,
April 24th, 2022 at 11:20 pm
Playing sports is different from normal work places. You cannot accept any fight in a company but sports can tolerate bad players. Evan Brady throws iPads and quarreled with Daniels during a loss game. The Bucs was awarded with the first SB by accepting a bad human player during the first year, why they could not accept him during the 2nd year?
I believe the Bucs would get the SB If AB was well managed by the Coach.
April 25th, 2022 at 1:35 am
Whatever Todd Bowles wants!……enough said!
April 25th, 2022 at 7:38 am
Dion Sanders, Jim McMahon, Dez Bryant, Chad Johnson, Owen’s, Eric Dickerson, Namath, Ray Lewis & Charles Haley (two bad individuals) ALL team distractions. When a coach gets emotionally involved that’s how a bad situation turns into chaos. Belichick and most other coaches would have benched him without another word. Deal with it after the game. Bruce should have benched him and said we’ll meet on this is Tampa. I forgot he doesn’t go to meetings. Then maybe over a beer at happy hour.
April 25th, 2022 at 7:44 am
It’s April 25th not April 1st
April 25th, 2022 at 9:49 am
You quit on your team in MID GAME and make a spectacle of yourself like that you’re toast A hole.
April 25th, 2022 at 10:10 am
the fact that this organization would even run this article points to the complicit nature of this team to accept anything and anyone without questioning morals, ethics and consequences. Congrats on joining that special club with the Raiders, Ravens and Patriots.
April 25th, 2022 at 11:38 am
sj, and SF, Dallas, Cincy, Cleveland, Miami, Seahawks and many many more. Grow up or wake up, it’s called professional sports. Dustin Johnson one of my favorite golfers was a coke attic.
April 25th, 2022 at 7:43 pm
I don’t care if AB comes back or not. I just want to win and win a lot, get that trophy. Whatever Light does to get it, I’m fine with and glad I don’t have to make those decisions. Right now it’s draft and I think JL is going to kill it again. He’s been on a roll as of late and no reason to think otherwise.
April 27th, 2022 at 7:00 pm
I think this Shipley guy wants to sabotage the Bucs