“Was injured”: This is how NFL star Antonio Brown explains his strange departure

American football player Antonio Brown made his first comment after his uncontrolled exit in the NFL game of his Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the New York Jets. Brown said in a statement through his attorney that he refused to play injured and was banned from the team by Bucs coach Bruce Arians.

“The coach told me that if I wasn’t injured, it was the Bucs for me,” Brown explained. “I didn’t give up, I was thrown out.” According to Brown, the Bucs player is suffering from an ankle injury, examinations are said to have revealed a torn ligament and bone splinters in the joint. “The pain was extreme,” said Brown.

Tampa Bay’s coach Bruce Arians previously disagreed that Brown stormed off the field with the ankle injury. The 33-year-old Brown left the game against New York in the third quarter angrily and took off his jersey. In the end, the Buccaneers prevailed against the Jets with 28:24. Brown took off his jersey, shirt and gloves on Sunday, threw everything into the audience and jogged into the dressing room. Before that, he hopped topless through the end zone.

After the scandal, the team kicked him out – at least verbally. “He’s no longer a Buc,” said coach Bruce Arians on Sunday. “That’s the end of the story.” The coach didn’t want to say more about the wide receiver. 69-year-old Arians made it clear that he only wanted to talk about the players who were still part of his team. However, to date, Brown has not been officially fired from the Buccaneers.

Professional footballer Brown had caused quite a stir in the past. At the beginning of last season he switched to the Bucs, the first eight weeks he had been banned from the league for violating the code of conduct, then won the Super Bowl with his team. Most recently, Brown was sentenced to three games suspension from the league for a forged vaccination ID.