Super Bowl LIV should have been a homecoming for Antonio Brown
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Akeem Perry said he was standing in line at a WingStop restaurant and about to order lunch on Sept. 7 when he looked at his phone and saw the news.
Antonio Brown, the troubled but talented wide receiver, had signed with the New England Patriots.
“I would never forget that day,’’ Perry said. “It felt like a movie.’’
During his high school years, Brown lived on a block less than a mile from Hard Rock Stadium, site of Super Bowl LIV to be played Sunday.
Perry, who was one of Brown’s closest friends, lived on the same block — Northwest 193rd Terrace — and on Sept. 7 an improbable Super Bowl script seemed to be taking shape.
Like many other NFL fans, Perry thought Brown would form an unbeatable partnership with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. And that Brown would end the season playing almost literally down the block in the Super Bowl.
“But it didn’t turn out that way,’’ said Joseph Lewis, who lives across the street from Perry and recalls lifting weights with Brown when they were high school buddies.
Instead, Brown played one game for the Patriots before being released when allegations of sexual and personal misconduct piled up. Now he has become a Super Bowl side show.
On Tuesday, after a Florida judge freed him from an ankle monitor and house arrest, Brown celebrated across the street from Broward County Courthouse by blasting music in his Lamborghini, posing for photos with passersby and luxuriating in the sun after taking off his dress shirt.
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But there has been little else to celebrate for Brown, 31, who is facing legal issues that include felony charges related to the alleged assault of a moving-truck driver and a civil lawsuit filed by a woman who worked as Brown’s trainer and has accused him of rape.
“When he was growing up, different ballgame,’’ said Nathaniel “Teddy” Herriott, who lives across the street from the home in which Brown lived. “But now, I don’t know what done happen. I don’t know who’s been guiding him.’’
Herriott said he taught Brown how to tie a tie and also tried to provide guidance when Brown was living in the tree-lined, middle-class neighborhood near the stadium. Smiling, Herriott recalled years later seeing Brown wearing a bow tie while being interviewed by Bob Costas.
“I said, ‘Oh, shoot, Tony still hasn’t learned how to tie a tie,’ ” he recalled with a chuckle. “He called me Mr. Teddy. He used to come to me for little discussions about this and that.
“But we lost track. I have no idea. It’s really got me, like, this is not the Tony I knew.’’
Lewis echoed those sentiments while recalling how he used to lift weights in the backyard where Lewis lived with his family.
“Like positive vibes, man,’’ Lewis, a licensed electrician, said of Brown. “Nothing like what’s going on now.’’
Herriott, 70, reminisced about watching Brown and other neighborhood kids playing football in the street. But he also recalled having to break up altercations between Brown and Brown’s stepfather, Larry Moss.
“I had to come between the two of them occasionally,’’ Herriott said. “They were right out here in my front yard and I would come between them.
“That was one of the things I would talk about with Tony. Come on, even though I was aware that Larry wasn’t his biological father, you live under his roof and you have to abide by his rules.”
Perry also said Brown could be emotional.
“Honestly, Tony’s Tony,’’ he said. “He’s never been a person to let people tell him what to do.’’
Moss, who said as a teenager Brown once punched him in the face, said the two have not spoken in several years. Brown has told news media outlets he was kicked out of the house.
Moss has denied the allegations and said Brown began running away from home.
Citing family friction as the cause, Perry said he saw Brown living out of cars about a half dozen times and that Brown also slept on the floors and couches of their friends’ houses.
“There were times when he was 100% supporting himself,’’ Perry said. “Like sleeping in cars, sleeping at friends’ houses and stuff like that. Him and the stepdad didn’t really get along. At times there were always arguments. But Tony always found a way to make it.’’
Brown, who has made the Pro Bowl seven times during his 10-year NFL career, has earned $70 million in salary and bonuses, according to spotrac.com. He lives in a 12-bedroom mansion in mansion Hollywood, 15 miles Hard Rock Stadium.
His mother, Adrianne Moss, still lives in the same four-bedroom, two-bathroom house on Northwest 193rd Terrace with Brown’s three half brothers. Efforts to reach Adrianne Moss at her house or by phone were unsuccessful.
But Desmond Brown, Antonio Brown’s younger brother, said it’s fair to question whether his multimillionaire brother has provided enough financial support for their mother.
“I mean it’s not my money so I can’t feel no way about it, but I would definitely do things differently than him,’’ Desmond Brown said by text. “Maybe he was taking care of his baby moms and forgot his real mom."
Antonio Brown, who has five children with three women, is one of three boys whose father was mostly absent from their lives.
“My mom did anything and everything to not only raise us but to make sure we got anything we asked for,’’ Desmond Brown said.
Antonio Brown’s older brother, Eddie Jr., declined to comment.
Those who lived near Antonio Brown at Northwest 193rd Terrace grow uneasy when talk turns to his erratic behavior of the past year. It includes:
► Reporting to training camp with the Oakland Raiders with frostbitten feet.
► Taping a private conversation with Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and posting it on YouTube.
► Allegedly sending threatening text messages to a woman who accused him of unwanted sexual advances.
And outside the Broward County Courthouse on Tuesday, Brown denied knowing his younger brother when asked about Desmond Brown.
“I don’t have a brother named Dez,’’ he said repeatedly.
Told about the exchange, Desmond Brown said by text, “He’s clearly delusional right now, not in a good place mentally to actually deal with or handle reality. That’s why he’s going through all this stuff because he can’t deal with the truth and reality."
Since Brown entered the NFL in 2010, when the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the sixth round, Perry and Herriott said they have seen Brown back in the neighborhood just once. Both have photos of that day in March 2013 when Brown showed up driving a red Ferrari.
“It was cool, seeing that he’d made it and became successful,’’ Perry said, sharing the photo of Brown sitting behind the wheel of the red Ferrari.
Scrolling through his phone, Herriott found the photo of he and Brown standing next to the Ferrari.
“Knocked on my door and I was in my pajamas,’’ Herriott said. “So he took a picture of me before he left.
“If you talk to him, tell him Mr. Teddy say come on by and just say hi."
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