Antonio Brown On His Friendship With Tom Brady: 'He Needs Me To Play Football'
BOSTON (CBS) -- It's safe to assume that the Tom Brady-Antonio Brown friendship is over. Brown went absolutely scorched earth on his former quarterback on Friday, just one day after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers released the receiver following his in-game tirade last Sunday.
Brown joined the Full Send Podcast on Friday, and really let his thoughts on Brady and their relationship fly. The quarterback has had Brown's back over the last few years and is one of the main reasons he got his job in Tampa Bay, not to mention his brief stint in New England in 2019. Brady also backed Brown following the receiver's meltdown against the Jets.
But Brown made it clear that he and Brady are not really friends. At least not off the football field.
"To me, a friend is someone who's got your back. Not everybody in sports is going to be your friend. Tom Brady's my friend. Why? Because I'm a good player. He needs me to play football," said Brown. "People have different meanings of what friendship is."
When it was brought up that Brady let Brown stay in his house when he signed with New England, and then again with Tampa Bay last year, Brown shrugged it off.
"I got my own money," he said. "I got my own houses."
Brown said that Brady is the "general manager" of the Bucs, and questioned why he had to sign a "prove-it deal" while Rob Gronkowski was given no such contract after coming back from retirement.
"If Tom Brady is my boy, why am I playing for an earnest salary? You're my boy though right? Gronkowski's his boy, right? How much did he get paid? So why is AB on a prove-it deal? Who's better than me over there? Let's be real," said Brown.
"Brady can't do s--- by himself," Brown added. "But you guys are going to make it seem like he's just this heroic guy. We're all humans, bro. We're all dependent on somebody else to do the job."
On Thursday, Brown called out Brady and his personal trainer, Alex Guerrero on social media before deleting the posts. He even sent out a follow-up tweet saying not to get things "twisted" and that Brady and his teammates were good to him.
There is no twisting what Brown had to say on Friday, though.
