Antonio Brown says Bucs sacked him for refusing to play through ankle pain

In the third quarter of Sunday night's game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Jets, Bucs receiver Antonio Brown abruptly stripped off his equipment and exited the field. He then ordered an Uber and was driven away from the stadium.

The strange stunt caused quite the commotion in the sporting world, as fans and analysts searched for a possible motive.

On Wednesday night, Brown broke his silence for the first time since the incident, issuing a lengthy statement. A copy was obtained and shared via Twitter by NFL insider Adam Schefter.

In the statement, Brown claims the reason he stormed off the field was that coach Bruce Arians had forced him to keep playing despite severe ankle pain.

Brown says the training staff then injected him with "a powerful and sometimes dangerous painkiller," but it was not enough. The pain was just too much. He explains that after taking a seat on the sidelines, Arians came up to him and shouted, "What's wrong with you?" When Brown explained that his ankle was in too much pain to keep playing, Arians "didn't call for medical attention," but "ran his finger across his throat" and told him he was done as a member of the Bucs.

He goes on to reveal that he received an MRI on Monday, which showed broken bone fragments, a torn ligament, and cartilage loss.

To further back up his side of the story, Brown released a series of text messages he claimed had been sent between him and Arians before Sunday's game. As ESPN reports, following the game, Arians claimed he didn't know about the injury, despite Brown missing time because of it earlier in the week.

If, in fact, the text messages are authentic and Brown is telling the truth, the NFLPA will almost certainly get involved, as teams are not allowed to release a player due to injury.

Fans and analysts had mixed reactions to Brown's account. Most felt sympathy for the player, but also criticized the manner in which he acted. Fox Sports 1's Nick Wright even went so far as to compare Brown to someone who rioted at the Capitol on January 6 and subsequently begged for forgiveness. Wright acknowledged that it was clear that Brown had an ankle injury, but asked, "How does any of that explain the shirtless jumping jacks in the end zone while the game was being played?"

Wright's co-host Chris Broussard pointed out that in the current "he said, she said" situation, we should be focused on investigating the "easy verifiable" claims Brown made in his statement.