National Football League

Colin Cowherd: 'Antonio Brown had reasons to complain vs. Jets'

Published Jan. 8, 2022 1:52 p.m. ET

"Let's play detective."

Colin Cowherd is a man of many talents, and Friday, he put his investigative skills on full display in efforts to uncover the true culprit in the Antonio Brown-Bruce Arians saga.

"What do detectives look for when they come on to a crime scene?" Cowherd asked on "The Herd."

"Liars. Let's look at Antonio Brown's history. He lies a lot. Recently, he created a fake vaccine card. He lied about his helmet with the Raiders. He lied several times with his chef. I found 22 lies this morning. As a detective, I see some deception here from a person with a history of deception."

Colin Cowherd on Antonio Brown vs. Bruce Arians: 'This does not take great detective work' I THE HERD

Colin Cowherd weighs in on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' decision to release Antonio Brown. Though AB's statement accuses Bruce Arians of forcing him to play with an injured ankle, Colin thinks it doesn't take great detective work to show who's in the wrong here.

But no investigation can be fully complete without pinpointing a motive behind a person's course of action.

"Why would this guy lie? Oh, there's a story out this morning, validated by multiple people, that Antonio Brown and his agent asked that some bonus money be guaranteed. And the Bucs said no. So the motive was, ‘I’m mad.' Now there's another motive! Bruce Arians is saying that this was all about targets. So now I have a deceptive person that lies a lot, and a motive."

Cowherd rounded out his examination with a third, and decisive pit to round out his trifecta of reasons.

"You look for a pattern of behavior when the liar doesn't get his way. I looked this up this morning: He had multiple outbursts in Pittsburgh, one specifically with Ben Roethlisberger, because Ben was throwing too many balls to Juju Smith-Schuster. One day at practice, he threw a ball at Big Ben. Then he had one with Mike Mayock in Oakland, and grabbed a football and punted it. Then he had this one against the Jets.

"This is basic police work: Deception, motives, behavior."