{"id":845634,"date":"2026-03-31T21:01:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/845634\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:01:20","slug":"lavonte-david-reveals-antonio-brown-blowup-before-metlife-meltdown-might-snap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/845634\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavonte David reveals Antonio Brown blowup before MetLife meltdown: ‘Might snap’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Retired Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David explained that the writing was on the wall leading up to Antonio Brown\u2019s bizarre exit midway through a game against the Jets at MetLife Stadium in 2022.<\/p>\n

The former NFL wideout, who was visibly frustrated on the sideline, ripped off his shoulder pads, and tossed his gloves and shirt into the crowd before he\u00a0ran shirtless through the end zone<\/a> to the locker room. <\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s installment of the \u201cBussin\u2019 With The Boys\u201d podcast,<\/a> David recalled the incident and explained that it was clear Brown \u201cmight snap soon\u201d because he was \u201cpissed off\u201d in the locker room at halftime. <\/p>\n

\u201cI tell you this, bro, leading up to that, you saw it stirring up, you saw it brewing,\u201d said David, who retired\u00a0after 14 NFL seasons<\/a>, all with Tampa Bay, last week. \u201cHe came one day, like we were in there or whatever, we were in the locker room, we were chilling in the locker room. He came in there, he was complaining\u2026 about how I think he didn\u2019t score a touchdown or whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019m like, \u2018Bro, you had over 100 yards, what\u2019re you talking about?\u2019 He [was] just like, pissed off. You can see he might snap soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bucs wideout Antonio Brown sprints off the field shirtless in the thir quarter against the Jets at MetLife Stadium on January 2, 2022.<\/p>\n

David also recalled being asked by Bucs brass to help calm Brown down because he was \u201cgoing crazy\u201d in a walk-through practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just sprinting, catching the ball and throwing it at people, cursing people out\u2026 going off on coaches\u2026 So that game [against the Jets], I wasn\u2019t surprised in a sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

David added that Brown \u201ckind of messed up [the Bucs\u2019] chances\u201d at going to back-to-back Super Bowls after Tampa Bay defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in the 2021 Super Bowl. The team ended up going 8-9 and losing in the wild-card round to the Cowboys.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 To be honest with you, man, AB kind of messed up our chances of going to that second Super Bowl because he was that dude,\u201d David said. \u201cHe was a really good football player. When you rub him the wrong way you\u2019re going to get AB or Antonio Brown and that day, it was AB.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lavonte David on the \u201cBussin\u2019 With The Boys\u201d podcast. YouTube<\/p>\n

David said he never spoke to Brown about the incident, and that he saw him at a Miami Heat game that offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was talking like nothing ever happened and I didn\u2019t want to bring it up because it might trigger him again\u2026 I think he wanted the ball more but I think it stemmed from something much deeper,\u201d David said. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 He probably wanted to be a higher-paid guy but he didn\u2019t get that and I think they ended up giving [Rob Gronkowski] more money than him and I guess he felt a type of way about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonio Brown #81 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers warms up prior to the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on January 2, 2022 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Bucs\u2019 head coach at the time, Bruce Arians, said after the game at MetLife Stadium that Brown\u00a0was no longer a member of the team<\/a>, and he was formally released a few days later.<\/p>\n

Brown hasn\u2019t played in the NFL since. <\/p>\n

He was involved in numerous incidents off the field that soured his playing career. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Retired Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David explained that the writing was on the wall leading up to Antonio Brown\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[6086,211,7,6,9,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-845634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-antonio-brown","9":"tag-buccaneers","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116325809329930167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}