Lavonte David recounts unhinged Antonio Brown moments.
We all knew former Bucs receiver Antonio Brown was (and is) a couple of quarts short of a full gallon. And that diagnosis from Bucs fans came just from what we witnessed Brown do on TV.
Lavonte David has stories about what Brown did away from the prying eyes of network cameras that fully cemented how Brown is a whack job.
David, the former Bucs iconic linebacker who announced his retirement from football last week, hopped on the “Bussin with the Boys” podcast co-hosted by David’s former Nebraska teammate and Titans linebacker Will Compton and former Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan.
Compton asked David what he saw from his viewpoint on the bench when Brown had his ultimate (and final) crashout as an NFL player when he stripped off his jersey and shoulder pads in New Jersey against the Jets, ran into the end zone topless and starting doing jumping jacks like he was in a Marine boot camp before running out of the tunnel of Met Life Stadium, flashing the peace sign never to be seen on an NFL field again.
When Compton asked David about this, David started laughing and said Brown had several incidents at One Buc Palace and in the locker room where David knew Brown was about to blow a gasket.
David just didn’t think Brown would up and quit in the middle of a game and run out of the stadium packed with fans.
And, boy, David had stories.
“I tell you what, bro,” David began, trying to control a laugh. “You saw it stirring up. You saw it brewing.”
David began recounting stories and they are hilarious. Prior to his famous crashout, David said Brown once came into the locker room enraged that he hadn’t caught a touchdown, thinking either Tom Brady or Bucco Bruce Arians didn’t want to target him. David thought Brown was off his rocker.
“He came in the locker room and he was complaining how he didn’t score a touchdown,” David said. “I’m like, ‘Bro, what are you talking about? You had over 100 yards.’
“You could see he could just snap soon.”
It also sounded like David was Brown’s personal babysitter. David explained that he had an excused absence one day and the next day when he came back to One Buc Palace and went to meetings, players were begging David to get Brown under control.
“‘Hey, Lavonte, bro, we need you,” David said. “‘We need you to calm AB down.’ And I’m like, ‘AB? What happened with AB?’
“AB was at practice going crazy.”
David detailed that the practice in question after players pleaded with David to intervene, was a walk-through practice. But not to Brown, who instead of walking through a play or even a light jog, was full-out, full-blast sprinting on a dead run each play like it was a playoff game.
David said in the same practice whenever Brown caught a pass, he would rifle the ball at people and walk around the practice field cussing out people whoever happened to be in his line of sight at the time, including Bucs coaches, screaming at them to get him the ball — in a walkthrough practice! LOL
And David later explained — and David is absolutely correct — that Brown quitting on the Bucs likely cost the Bucs a third Super Bowl. If you remember, Brown wigging out came after Chris Godwin had blown a knee.
The Bucs’ receivers were so riddled with injuries, that against the Rams it was Mike Evans, Tyler Johnson, jumping Scotty Miller, scaredy-cat Jaelon Darden and whoever the Bucs could pull off the street to play receiver like John Brown (track star Cyril Grayson was inactive for the Rams playoff game).
All in all, you have to laugh not to cry thinking about how Brown helped Pearl Harbor what should have been a historic Bucs season.
And yes, Joe laughed for about 20 minutes, hearing David discuss how whacked out Antonio Brown was.
Lavonte David could tell Antonio Brown was going to crash out before “the incident.” pic.twitter.com/iWebURbEQT
— Bussin' With The Boys (@BussinWTB) March 31, 2026