All Antonio Brown wants for Christmas is ... the Patriots?

Tom Gatto

All Antonio Brown wants for Christmas is ... the Patriots? image

Antonio Brown tweeted a holiday-themed video message Sunday night, and it seemed to say . . . well, we're not exactly sure, but it showed him and Rob Gronkowski catching passes for the Patriots, so that's a clue.

Maybe the video was Brown's roundabout way of saying, "Please take me back. You aren't any good without me."

Brown posted the video, set to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You," while New England's offense was struggling to move the ball against the Texans in Houston. Pats quarterback Tom Brady finished with 326 passing yards and three touchdowns in the team's 28-22 loss, but most of that production came while the Patriots (10-2) were trailing by multiple scores. Brady completed 24 of 47 passes overall after going 7 for 19 in the first half.

The Patriots released Brown on Sept. 20 after Sports Illustrated reported Brown had sent a woman who has accused him of sexual misconduct threatening text messages. Brown is also being sued in South Florida by a female former acquaintance who accused him of rape and sexual assault. Brown played in just one game for New England, catching four passes and rushing once vs. the Dolphins in Week 2.

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Brown apologized via Twitter to team owner Robert Kraft and the organization on Nov. 19, and he also asked the team in October to bring him back, all while fighting management over millions of dollars he says it owes him after cutting him.

Brown filed multiple grievances with an arbitrator in October seeking to recoup about $40 million total in, as NFL Network's Ian Rapoport described, "unpaid salary, fines and voided guarantees" from the Patriots and the Raiders. Oakland cut him just before Week 1 after Brown posted a video that included an audio recording of an explicit phone conversation between he and coach Jon Gruden.

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Rapoport reported that the grievances, which were filed on Brown's behalf by the NFL Players Association, likely won't be heard until next year.

Further, the NFL is investigating Brown to determine whether it should suspend him under the league's personal conduct policy. Brown met with league representatives in November.

The addition of Gronkowski at the end of Brown's video was interesting given that the tight end has sent mixed signals about a possible return to football this season. Besides, as Pro Football Talk reported, Gronk can't play this year now because he wasn't activated by the Saturday cutoff.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.