PITTSBURGH, PA – NOVEMBER 08: Antonio Brown #84 of the Pittsburgh Steelers in action during the game against the Oakland Raiders on November 8, 2015 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
Antonio Brown is dealing with a lingering foot issue right now, but we have an answer as to the cause.
Antonio Brown has yet to practice at Oakland Raiders’ training camp due to a foot issue, which is sure to be a storyline when HBO’s Hard Knocks premieres Tuesday night. The photo Brown posted of his feet on social media can’t be unseen, and it’s clear there’s some sort of serious peeling issue at minimum.
Brown visited a foot specialist last weekend, and he’s considered day-to-day. On Tuesday Michael Gehlken of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the Raiders are “gathering information” on Brown’s foot issue, and head coach Jon Gruden declined to comment.
On Monday’s Pro Football Talk Live, co-host Chris Simms set aside the label of blisters on Brown’s feet and cited the obvious, disgusting peeling instead. Simms added he had a condition that looked like that once, calling it an “unidentified Buc fungus” when he played with Tampa Bay.
Later, Simms said Brown burned his feet by entering a cryotherapy chamber without the proper footwear, and “his feet were frostbitten.” Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, declined PFT’s request for comment.
It’s fair to assume that wasn’t the first time Brown had used a cryo-chamber, so his failure to use proper foot protection is odd past the point of pure forgetfulness. It reeks of creating a reason to skip training camp practices, as veteran NFL players are want to do, and nothing should be put past Brown.
Gruden’s earlier comments about getting him on the practice field aside, as long as Brown gets some reps in with Derek Carr in the coming weeks and is a full-go for Week 1 no one associated with the Raiders will care. But we now have an addition to the list of bizarre sports injuries, assuming the frostbite bit is true.