Antonio Brown’s contract was terminated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers following a sideline incident

Brown had accused the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of pressuring him to play through an ankle injury that will require surgery despite being in ‘extreme pain’ during Sunday’s win over the New York Jets; Bruce Arians says Brown did not highlight injury to medical team

Antonio Brown’s contract has been terminated by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with immediate effect.

Brown had accused the Super Bowl champions of pressuring him to play through an ankle injury that will require surgery despite being in ‘extreme pain’ during Sunday’s win over the New York Jets.

Less than 24 hours after Brown’s allegations, the Buccaneers announced they had released the wide receiver, who controversially ran off the field in the third quarter of his last game.

“The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have terminated the contract of Antonio Brown, effective immediately,” a team statement read.

“While Antonio did receive treatment on his ankle and was listed on the injury report the week leading up to last Sunday’s game, he was cleared to play by our medical team prior to the start of the game and at no point during the game did he indicate to our medical personnel that he could not play.

“We have attempted, multiple times throughout this week, to schedule an evaluation by an outside orthopedic specialist, yet Antonio has not complied, Maintaining the health and wellness of our players is of the utmost importance to our organization.”

Brown first made headlines with his hasty exit at MetLife Stadium, when he removed his jersey, shoulder pads and undershirt before throwing his shirt and gloves into the stands and leaving the field with the Bucs trailing in the third quarter.

On Wednesday, he then made a lengthy statement through his attorney Sean Burstyn. Brown said he was fired by Bruce Arians after telling Tampa’s head coach he could not return to the game due to his ankle.

Brown added that an MRI had revealed broken bone fragments, a ligament torn from the bone and cartilage loss.

The following day on Thursday, the 33-year-old wide receiver shared screengrabs of a text message exchange purported to be between him and Arians prior to the Jets game.

In it Brown receives a message starting “This is BA”, before saying: “Make sure you are ready to go tomorrow. We ARE NOT resting for the playoffs.”

Brown replies: “I’m all in coach really can’t (sic) get to full speed I wanna win wanna be there if I wake up tomorrow feel better I’ll be ready (sic).” Accompanying the screenshot, Brown tweeted: “Health over Wealth # Barbarian.”

Brown was in his second season with the Buccaneers and won the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay last season. He returned to Twitter later on Thursday to clarify he felt supported by teammates, including quarterback Tom Brady.

“Don’t get it twisted. My brothers have been good to me. From Tom to practice squad, we were a top-level unit. They have been good to me and knew nothing about my talks with coach last week. The team mishandled this situation. They let me down and, more importantly, my teammates.”

Speaking after the team released their statement, head coach Arians stated that he was not aware of the wide receiver’s medical issues as he explained what led to the dramatic walk-off at MetLife Stadium.

“At no point in time during that game did he ever ask the trainer or doctor about his ankle, that’s the normal protocol,” Arians said.

“I was never notified of it, so obviously, that was the disturbing thing when we were looking for him to go back in the game. He was very upset at half-time about who was getting targeted, we got that calmed down, the players took care of that.

“It started again on the sideline, we called for the personnel group he had played in the entire game, he refused to go in the game. That’s when I looked back and saw him basically wave off the coach.