Antonio Brown gets clowned on NFL Twitter as ex-NFL WR announces latest move to ESPN - "That CTE got the best of you"

Amidst a massive round of layoffs, ESPN could be having a new very outspoken employee in former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown - or so he thinks.

On Saturday, the former Super Bowl champion and multiple-time Pro Bowler took to Twitter to tease a "partnership" with the Disney-owned sports network. However, he did not give any more details:

"Excited to announce my new partnership @espn (pointing finger emojis)"

Twitter laughed at his "announcement", with a few, in particular, taking aim at his mental state:

---

Where did Antonio Brown's purported CTE originate and how did that incident change him?

Those two tweets about Antonio Brown and his alleged CTE do have a point to stand on.

The wide receiver is one of the most polarizing figures in NFL history, with his tremendous on-field accomplishments and stats often (in not always) overshadowed by his off-field antics. But a good number of people agree that he did not truly become notorious until January 9, 2016.

On that day, Brown's Pittsburgh Steelers were facing the Cincinnati Bengals in the Wild Card round. The 12-4 Bengals were the AFC North champions, with the 10-6 Steelers as one of the wild cards.

As the game neared its end, the Bengals were leading 16-15 when linebacker Vontaze Burfict knocked out Antonio Brown with a head hit. Burfict and Adam Jones were ejected from the game for multiple penalties, allowing the Steelers to kick themselves into the Divisional round, 18-16.

Since that hit, Brown became only more erratic and controversial, with incidents from a feud with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to his Albany Empire's recent expulsion from the National Arena League. One of the proponents of the Burfict-CTE theory, Pittsburgh radio host Colin Dunlap, told Zach Gelb in 2020:

"He started to be someone who was afraid everyone was out to get him, he never smiled after that all that much - he became somebody different. He used to be innocently narcissistic, much like a lot of receivers in the NFL, but he didn’t have this dark side to him. And for me, every single incident, it all happened after the Burfict hit.

"If you can’t see the trajectory that took a sharp spike right after the Burfict hit - and he has never recovered since then... I think that the launching point for me is that AFC Wild Card game. I think it’s that, and I think his head is messed up from football."