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Antonio Brown has been a thorn in the side of multiple NFL teams over the past year or so, and on Friday, the Patriots became the most recent franchise to decide he wasn’t worth the trouble after they released him following a whirlwind week in which another woman came forward to accuse him of sexual assault only to be met with threatening text messages from the wide receiver.
It initially seemed like Brown took the news in stride, as he hopped on Instagram shortly after being cut to thank New England for the opportunity (and run a caption contest).
https://www.instagram.com/p/B2pVeJPh1mX/?utm_source=ig_embed
However, things took an interesting turn on Sunday when the embattled player took a shot at Robert Kraft and announced he’d no longer be playing in the NFL (even though his agent Drew Rosenhaus said other teams were interested in signing him as of Saturday).
However, Brown didn’t explicitly rule out the option of playing in another league, but according to Pro Football Talk, the XFL won’t be one of them, as a spokesperson informed the outlet it has no interest in allowing him to play when it kicks off its inaugural season this spring.
When Vince McMahon announced the league was coming back, he said players with felonies wouldn’t be welcome, and while Brown hasn’t been charged with a crime, I can understand why they might not want to be associated with him.
With that said, there’s nothing Mr. McMahon loves more than some good ol’ fashioned drama, so while the XFL might not currently be interested, only time will tell if it’ll change its tune if it finds itself in the need of some free publicity.