Antonio Brown and Simone Biles: What’s the Difference?

CLAY: Buck was saying as we went to break that the world of sports even crossed over into his world with an absurd story surrounding Antonio Brown. I’m gonna give you those details if you missed it. But I love the NFL media because they’re super woke. You think the political media are woke, Buck? They’re going to now have to make a decision over who the NFL MVP is.

The decision is going to be Aaron Rodgers, the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers who refused to get vaccinated — and everybody was just furious that he refused to get vaccinated and said that he was immunized — or it’s going to be Tom Brady, who had a MAGA hat in his locker when Donald Trump was running for president. Those are basically the two options. Tom Brady is the quarterback for Antonio Brown, and Antonio Brown is sort of a mercurial wide receiver who had blown out his welcome with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He blew out his welcome with the Oakland Raiders at the time, also then blew up everything with New England Patriots when he was released because of a sexual assault or sexual assault allegation. It wasn’t actually a charge. He now decided in the middle of a game… If you haven’t seen this video, it’s pretty entertaining — in the middle of the game Antonio Brown takes off his pads, takes off his jersey, strips down shirtless, and walks through the end zone waving good-bye to everyone.

He exits the field and immediately goes to the airport, according to a report from Chris Myers, where he got an airplane flight and left in the middle of the game basically ending his career, I think. Buck, you even saw this video. What was your reaction when you see a player in a game, in the middle of a game quit and walk off the field?

BUCK: I’ve definitely been in some situations where I kind of envy this. I wish I could — in the middle of the CNN segment, when their anchors were engaged in the classic CNN ambush — just say, “You know what?” Take off the tie. Take off the jacket. “I’m out!” Throw the mic down. People have done that sort of like thing on cable news before. I did think it was interesting to watch this just because my understanding is…

And correct me if I’m wrong, ’cause we talked about this a while ago and I didn’t even have strong views on this. I was just kind of thinking about it in real time. But my understanding from the sports world is that when a competitor decides suddenly to no longer compete if it’s for any kind of mental health or emotional reason, that’s incredible bravery, more so than even continuing to play for your team and to be a part of that competitive process. I thought that was the rule.

CLAY: It is really funny. For those of you who remember the Summer Olympics, that’s probably the thing that you’ve gotten criticized for —

BUCK: The most.

CLAY: This is funny. He was getting ripped all over. Anything he said on the show, Buck — and I said the same thing, and people totally expected it from me.

BUCK: I think they expect… Yeah, there expected it from you. That was the thing, yeah.

CLAY: Yeah. So Simone Biles decides in the middle of a competition… For those of you who don’t remember, Simone Biles decides in the middle of the gymnastics competition, “I can’t do this, I am pulling myself out, I’m not mentally there, and so I am withdrawing from competition.” Everybody has the ability and the right to withdraw from any competition that they want. But immediately she was hailed as a mental health hero; there were absolute odes to her bravery spread out across sports media everywhere.

I said at that point in time, “If you quit, that’s fine. But it’s not heroic to quit. And if a man had done the exact same thing as what Simone Biles did, he would get criticized to the high heavens.” Now we have Antonio Brown in the middle a sporting event. I think Antonio Brown, unfortunately, probably has early stage CTE. I think he certainly has mental issues just based on his behavior. But he is getting destroyed across everywhere in the sports ecosystem. So how is it that Simone Biles quitting in the middle of a gymnastics event is heroic and brave and Antonio Brown is a malcontent deserving of total condemnation by everything in the world of sports? Didn’t he, in some way, do what Simone Biles did?

BUCK: And is the left-wing cancellation brigade going to yell at me more for just being present for this analysis with Clay than Clay will be for saying these things? That’s just a side note.

CLAY: Well, I think Simone Biles is gonna end up the NFL MVP. I made a joke about this last night on Twitter but the wokest of the sports media members, I really… They are gonna be curled up in the fetal position shivering ’cause they have Omicron because they have to decide between Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, two people whose politics and personal decisions as they pertinent covid and Donald Trump do not align with the predominant far left wing of the sports media.

BUCK: Everything, folks, is political now. That’s the world that we have all been pulled into. There was a time — and it’s not just in sports. You see this now in health. I know this now seems farcical to discuss it. There was a time when what works, what keeps people healthy, what’s safe, wasn’t about whether you’re red team/blue team. It wasn’t Democrat or Republican. Everything now has become an opportunity because this is how cultural Marxism operates.

This is how the totalitarian left pushes forward the agenda. Nothing can be outside the scope of the ideological need more power and control over your lives. You see it in sports. You see it all over the place. Yeah, on the Simone Biles thing, we had the exact same opinion which I was saying, “Okay, fine. If someone had sprained an ankle and can’t finish, you don’t criticize ’em for that. You just say, ‘Okay, sorry to hear that,’ and you move on.” If someone’s having mental or emotional difficulty and they pull out of an event, you don’t say, “That’s amazing!” You just say, “Okay. They’re taking some time for themselves.” Also fine.

CLAY: It’s not heroic. It’s not courageous.

BUCK: Yeah, the pandering elevation there was the part of it that we all saw, just like, what is this, guys? Can we all be just honest?

CLAY: I just said the great thing about sports is we treat everybody — we should — equally because in competition there’s a winner and a loser. I said at the time and I’ll reiterate it now” If a man had done what Simone Biles did — and we just saw it happen with Antonio Brown — he would get castigated, criticized, derided to the high heavens —

BUCK: Probably fired, right?

CLAY: — and now we’re seeing it.

BUCK: It’s true.

CLAY: It’s what’s happening.

BUCK: I saw the analogy. He’s probably fired, right? He’s no longer plays.

CLAY: Yeah, he’s been cut from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His career may be over because he walked out on his team in the middle of a game. Whatever his reasons might have been, most people out there in the world of sports are going to say this is unacceptable, and yet if you heard about… Look, I’m not saying Simone Biles is an awful person. Far from it. And I’m not directly comparing anything psychologically that she or Antonio Brown were going through.

I’m just saying at the most basic level when you decide not to compete for mental reasons, for any reason, the standard of play… If you’re going to say Simone Biles is courageous and brave, then why would you not say that Antonio Brown is courageous and brave? I’m applying the same standard, male or female, to everyone out there, and most people are not gonna do that. It is really, to me, instrumental and instructive of where we are as a society that we have different standards for athletes based on what their identity is.