On Saturday, January 2, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced the New York Jets at the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. To begin the game, the 11-4 Bucs were struggling to capitalize over the 4-11 Jets as this was the first game many players returned from injury. Antonio Brown had an exception for why he was out due to him having a fake vaccination status card. This caused Brown to be suspended from the NFL for multiple weeks.

As time was ticking by, the Jets were capitalizing even higher over the Buccaneers. Players on the Bucs started to become quite restless as the score was 10-24. With just under three minutes left in the third quarter, Wide Receiver Antonio Brown was benched and seen taking his jersey along with his pads and continued to run and take his undershirt off while on his way to the player tunnel to exit the game. As Brown was running to the end zone he waved goodbye to fans and threw some of his paraphernalia to the crowd.

The Buccaneers ended up coming back and defeating the Jets and in a press conference with the Bucs coach Bruce Arians had stated, “he [Antonio Brown] is no longer a Buc” 

Days after the incident left fans curious about why Anthonio Brown had acted the way that he did. Many linked the behavior to head injuries caused by playing football. Brown has been known for doing unknown acts involved in the NFL. In a statement released by Antonio Brown, he had stated “I took a seat on the sideline and my coach came up to me, very upset, and shouted, ‘What’s wrong with you? What’s wrong with you?’ I told him, ‘It’s my ankle.’ But he knew that. It was well-documented and we had discussed it.”