We Can Never Know The Demons Another Is Wrestling With

So let's all pile on while we still can, shall we??

Antonio Brown went into full meltdown mode, inexplicably leaving the field during the middle of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ Week 17 game against the New York Jets. It sure seemed like he just … gave up on his team, with the Buccaneers trailing in the second half.

Brown was spotted taking off his jersey and shoulder pads on the sideline during the game, even with teammate Mike Evans trying to apparently talk Brown out of it. But Brown persisted, ripped off his pads and left the field in dramatic fashion….

Brown has a troubling history of sexual assault allegations, which led to his release from the New England Patriots, and falsifying a vaccination card, which led to a suspension with the Buccaneers. He also engineered his way off the Raiders in and insane sequence of events. He brings drama — and worse — to every team he’d played for.

So everyone felt pretty good about ripping into Brown on Twitter for his actions and the Bucs for their stupid decision of adding him.

I suspect you had to be living under a rock- or somewhere in the Italian countryside- to have escaped seeing a video of Tampa Bay WR Antonio Brown’s very public meltdown. It was epic and, as some wags have opined, the inevitable denouement of the career of a supremely talented and deeply troubled professional athlete.

No one seems to know what led to Brown quitting and leaving Met Life Stadium in the middle of a game, but the temptation on social media has been to dump on him with both barrels. The above graphic is relatively tame, and some responses have been exceedingly brutal and lacking in something appropriate in a case like this: compassion.

As a society, we tend to view professional athletes as somehow superhuman and thus immune to the sorts of human issues that bedevil lesser mortals- things like mental illness, for example. Yet athletes are no more or less human than anyone else- and they’re subject to the same sorts of personal hardships with which those of us outside the limelight deal cope.

Anyone who’s followed Antonio Brown’s career understands that something is rotten in Denmark. None of us can diagnose from afar, of course. But it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to recognize a potentially significant mental health issue. That’s where compassion becomes so essential. As one who has one foot in that world, I’m here to tell you that compassion towards the mentally ill is everything.

Football is a game in which participants are loathe to admit personal weakness. Large, incredible strong men engage in mortal combat during every play. One wrong move can result in the ending of a season or even a career. In a game once described by George Will as “violence punctuated by committee meetings,” weaknesses exist to be exploited. Mental illness has always been one of the scariest weaknesses, making professional football historically hostile to discussions of depression and related issues.

We can never know the internal battles another person is fighting. Unfortunately, in Antonio Brown’s case, his struggles are playing out in a very public forum, which certainly doesn’t make things easier. But, while we can’t know what demons he may be wrestling with, we do have an opportunity to show compassion towards someone who may need it.

Sure, it’s easy to make fun of Brown, who hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to make himself a sympathetic character. He may be a YUUGE asshole. Then again, we can’t know what dragons he’s yet to slay- or even if he’ll be able to do so- but we can show compassion and wish the best for him.

After all, what’s the old saying? There, but for the grace of [insert name of preferred Supreme Being here], go I.

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