More often than not, when someone says something controversial, the problem isn’t necessarily the message but the messenger. Former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman said that’s exactly what happened earlier this week when on-again/off-again NFL WR Antonio Brown weighed in on the Colin Kaepernick saga.
To recap, Brown stated in an interview with Naji on the Cigar Talk this week that Kaepernick “don’t wanna play, man. He was trash.”
Harsh words indeed, but Merriman said that, harsh though Brown’s words may be, “a lot of people think that way.”
“We get the message,” Merriman said, “but people aren’t trying to listen to the messenger,” per TMZ.
Ah yes, the messenger. We can’t necessarily blame anyone for raising an eyebrow about Antonio Brown. This is the same guy who, back in early January, while he was still with Tom Brady and the Buccaneers, disrobed in the middle of a game, tossed his shirt into the Jets crowd, and headed into the locker room, completely abandoning his teammates during a critical moment. He was subsequently released from the team, per OutKick’s Alejandro Avila.
So Merriman speaks for a lot of people when he says, “I normally don’t agree with (Brown) a whole lot.” But in the case of Kap, he says Brown made “some valid points.”
Indeed. And Brown and Merriman both list several reasons why Kap deserves a lot of the criticism he gets.
Though few would agree with some of AB’s antics, Merriman — and many others in and around the league — have put those antics aside and have listened to what Brown has actually been saying. And that’s a message they can agree with.
