Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather Jr. is issuing an impressive offer to all NFL teams: Sign Antonio Brown for $20 million, and if he fails to make it through the entire season without issue, the team will be fully reimbursed.
That might be a fun venture for some other desperate team throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, but for first-year general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and first-year head coach Kevin O’Connell, it’s an unnecessary headache with possibly catastrophic consequences.
It doesn’t need to be said because the entire scenario sounds completely ludicrous. But I’m still saying it anyway: terrible idea!
— AB (@AB84) April 8, 2022
Imagine the backlash Adofo-Mensah would face for bringing in the same guy that stripped shirtless in the middle of a game against the New York Jets with Tom Brady as his quarterback.
If he acted like that when catching passes from Brady, a few games with Kirk Cousins under center, and he’d be running around the field in his drawers.
Antonio Brown ran off the field shirtless after showing some frustration on the sidelines.@JenHale504 pic.twitter.com/Jet6ofnNm2
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) January 2, 2022
Vikings fans don’t need to see that when things are finally moving in a positive direction. The old guard with Mike Zimmer and Rick Spielman is gone, and the team is stuck in between an actual turnaround and being too naïve to know they’re about to fall flat on their face, again.
Whatever the case may be, it sure beats that same old feeling of mediocrity.
The Vikings are good with Justin Jefferson as their No. 1 receiving option. Adam Thielen is aging but still incredibly reliable. And K.J. Osborn is a talented up-and-comer that doesn’t need his snaps cut for an Avengers-like experiment at the receiver position.
Wherever Brown goes in the NFL, chaos seems to follow. The sad part is he’s still one of the best receivers in football, period. When it comes to perfecting his craft, no one works harder than Brown on and off the football field.
It’s everything else that comes with him that’s the problem. That isn’t to say no team will or even should be in the business of signing a man who referred to himself as “Mr. Big Chest” when he was still with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He somehow went from that to walking out on his Tampa Bay Buccaneers teammates, bare-chested.
Surely, an analytical mind like Adofo-Mensah would laugh off the mere thought of Brown joining the Vikings. But Brown’s elite talent and the fact that the Vikings are obviously in a win-now mode makes you wonder if there’s a Lloyd Christmas one-in-a-million chance.
Let’s hope not.
