By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Shaunodon on 24 October 2019
Edit Thread
MTZehvor said:
Shaunodon said:

This wasn't a story that was blown up to any degree. None of the mainstream sports media have even mentioned it to my knowledge, and it was difficult to even find the articles about it. It was just a nugget of info that got buried in the fallout of everything.

And what exactly makes his insipid speculation about dysfunction any less reliable than your spitballing about what must be happening behind closed doors? At the very least, he is closer to the team than you are. So if he's trying to report things like this, there must be something going on, with some kind of tension.
Not that I'd ever bet my life on the total accuracy of his reporting, but where there's smoke there's fire. From reports before AB joined the team (Kraft texting Brady about whether he was in on AB, in hindsight probably because he himself didn't really want him), and then while AB was with the team, when he was apparently outraged to hear about the allegations. So it's not like Mr. Kraft being the main reason for AB being cut just came out of nowhere.
And it's not difficult to figure out why he wouldn't want that attention right now, especially of that nature.

Nothing makes my speculation any more reliable, of course, which is why I'm not going around pronouncing it as the truth of what happened. I'm not taking my speculation, using it as a basis to say that something is wrong, and then decrying that there has to be some breakdown or dysfunction in the system. Literally the whole point of the speculation is to show there's no reason to inherently assume something's wrong: It provides a realistic, albeit purely hypothetical, scenario in which this is all handled without the need for some silly drama at the top.

Not really sure how Kraft texting AB means anything: That just seems like asking the guy who's going to be throwing him the ball to make sure he's ok. If Kraft didn't even want him to be there in the first place, he just...wouldn't have signed him.

And, no, there really doesn't have to be anything going on to get reports from "sources." It was just 2 years ago that Curran boldly proclaimed from "sources" that there was next to zero possibility that the Patriots would make major moves in the offseason. You know, the offseason they picked up Stephon Gilmore, Brandin Cooks, Lawrence Guy, etc. And Curran is probably one of the more reputable reporters for Boston sports: There's plenty far more egregious examples I'm sure both of us can bring up of absolute bullshit peddled by Boston and US media. The adage of "where there's smoke, there's fire," doesn't work in a world where the people reporting the fire are the ones often creating the smoke.

I'm not trying to pronounce any great truth either. There's a good chance the 'allegation' against Antonio Brown could bear fruit tomorrow, with some concrete evidence that he's truly guilty and I could look like a total moron for trying to defend him (at least on that front). All I'm doing is looking at the timeline of everything and what little information we've gotten, and making my best guess at what I believe is happening.
Just like the timing of his allegations seem almost too convenient, that it's hard to believe it wasn't obviously drummed up to some extent by the media. And just like Kraft probably didn't want AB to begin with, but it was clearly Belichick who'd been chasing him for a while that wanted to sign him, and so it's not hard to believe that Kraft would ultimately make the decision to cut him while Belichick wasn't in agreement.

We're just gonna have to agree to disagree. I can at least repect your opinion that the media have next-to-no credibility. And I'm gonna have to keep praying while watching Brady take 8+ hits a game, he can somehow avoid a season-ending injury before Wynn gets back. Though more uncomfortable than normal thinking about the Browns, who are ill-disciplined; and Myles Garrett who doesn't have an off-switch and is as likely to hurt a QB as anyone in the league (with Burfict out now), though it's not his intention (unlike Burfict).