It’s basically an understatement at this point to call Antonio Brown controversial. The former superstar NFL wide receiver has become more known for his off-the-field drama that follows him wherever he goes. Between running off the field during the middle of what would be his final NFL game in 2022, his disastrous three-month tenure as the owner of the Albany Empire indoor football team and various arrest warrants for unpaid child support and domestic violence, he’s established himself as a true menace to society. But he can now add the title of Twitter Troll to his already impressive resumé, as he’s been extremely active posting about anything and anyone on his mind.
For those out there who aren’t chronically glued to X, formerly known as Twitter, like I admittedly am sometimes, a Twitter Troll is someone who takes to the platform to release a barrage of hateful or derogatory messages directed at either an individual or a group, often for no reason whatsoever. These posts are often delivered at a high frequency and tend to be emotionally charged. Typically, Twitter Trolls are made up of useless incels sitting in their mom’s basement all day with nothing better to do than post brainless takes like “Margot Robbie is mid.” And most of the time, it just results in that user getting mocked and “ratioed” by other X users for their trolling.
It’s rare to see somebody as famous, or rather infamous, as Brown take on this identity, but that’s exactly what’s happened. Over the last three weeks, Brown has been absolutely unhinged on his warpath of trolling. He’s averaging at least 10 posts per day by my estimation and has chosen a variety of subjects and people to go after. Some of the biggest examples include his claim that Iowa women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark looks like Mel Gibson — which is quite the reference since I can’t even think of the last time Gibson was relevant — and calling former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe gay for a video he posted on TikTok. Both Clark and Sharpe have done absolutely nothing to warrant these posts and it makes no sense to why Brown felt the need to go after them.
Brown has even ventured into the realm of political trolling after he somehow got blocked by Joe Biden (I’d be shocked if Biden even knows who Brown is). This prompted him to declare his support for Donald Trump by posting a picture of him photoshopped with Trump. Brown has since made continuous posts about wanting to be Trump’s vice presidential pick and is even selling t-shirts of the picture he posted. These posts aren’t too chaotic compared to some of the other posts he’s made, but it’s hilarious to picture him sitting on his phone thinking “Man, I’d be a great VP, I hope Donny reads this.” Trump has yet to respond to Brown’s inquiry about the position, though I would legitimately pay money to see his response.
But why exactly has Brown been so hell-bent on trolling as much as he can lately? The most likely response to this is that Brown claims he has Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, better known as CTE, a brain disorder that is caused by repeated head trauma that many NFL players have suffered from. Symptoms of CTE include impulsive behavior, behavioral changes and emotional instability. Brown has adopted CTE as part of his personal brand, making numerous posts claiming that he has the disorder and by launching the X page “CTESPNNetwork” to troll ESPN. However, CTE can only be diagnosed after examining someone’s brain in an autopsy after their death, meaning that we don’t know for sure if Brown has it or not. Just because Brown is showing the symptoms mentioned above in his erratic posts and may very well have CTE does not mean this is something he should hide behind to justify his behavior. He shouldn’t be given a pass to be an assh*le because he claims to have a disorder and deserves to be called out for his self-diagnosis.
It’s crazy to see how far Brown has fallen from his glory days. I remember growing up watching him play football and make some of the best catches I’d ever seen. But now, myself and many others see him as just another addition to the garbage bin of internal trolls that grows bigger by the day. And with Elon Musk’s laissez-faire approach to banning people from the platform, Brown isn’t going away anytime soon – unless he posts that one picture of Musk with Ghislaine Maxwell.