The Bucs in 2020 began a journey that would lead to a Super Bowl victory and a window that was wide open for more than that, thanks to the arrival of Tom Brady. Whenever a team brings in someone like that, they also generate a lot of attention from other free agents, specifically veterans.
One of those veterans was Antonio Brown, who has seen himself go from a future Hall of Famer to an off-the-field disaster for all intents and purposes. That decline can be traced back seemingly to a game between the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January of 2022.
The Bucs were on pace to be favored to win another Super Bowl, but Brown had a meltdown and stormed off the field in a unique fashion that included running across the field shirtless while hyping up the crowd. That moment and the fallout have stuck with now-retired Bucs linebacker Lavonte David since it happened.
He recently spoke about it on Bussin’ with the Boys, explaining, “I tell you this, bro, leading up to that, you saw it stirring up, you saw it brewing. He came one day, like we were in there or whatever,” David said. “We were in the locker room, we were chilling in the locker room. He came in there, he was complaining about how I think he didn’t score a touchdown or whatever, and I’m like, bro, you had over 100 yards, what’re you talking about? He (was) just like, pissed off. You can see that he might snap soon… To be honest with you, man, AB kind of messed up our chances of going to that second Super Bowl.”
The Bucs would go on to lose in the playoffs to the Philadelphia Eagles in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. From there, the team never found its footing again as Tom Brady would retire, as would Bruce Arians soon after, and that leads us to the present day where the Bucs have still not picked up the pieces.
This article originally appeared on Bucs Wire: Lavonte David opened up about that one Antonio Brown game
Reporting by Andrew Harbaugh, Buccaneers Wire / Bucs Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
