The Antonio Brown helmet saga is not over.
Just last week, an arbitrator ruled against the Oakland Raiders wide receiver regarding his grievance to wear his old helmet and then on Monday, Brown filed yet another grievance.
According to Ian Rapoport, Brown is now arguing that he should be afforded the same right provided to other NFL players to have a one-year grace period to phase out his helmet in the 2019 season. He claims that the NFL is arbitrarily applying rules. Rapoport adds that the expectation is that Brown's argument will be heard by an arbitrator on an expedited basis.
Last Tuesday, Brown posted on Twitter that he disagreed with the arbitrator's decision to deny his appeal, and then sent out a public request for a Schutt AiR Advantage adult large helmet that was manufactured in 2010 or after. He offered a signed practice Raiders helmet in return.
Just last Saturday, ProFootballTalk's Mike Florio reported that the NFL recently reversed course on its promise to allow Brown to wear a Schutt AiR Advantage helmet as long as he could find one less than 10 years old. In doing so, the league decided to require testing of Brown's new helmet, which was made in 2014, and he had been certified for use by the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE). After examining it, the NFL informed Brown that his helmet failed the test.
The fact that this hearing should be expedited will be beneficial to everyone, as Raiders general manager Mike Mayock has made it clear that he is ready to move on from this situation.
"You all know that A.B. is not here today. So here's the bottom line. He's pretty upset about the helmet issue," Mayock said on Sunday. "We have supported that. We appreciate that. But at this point, we've pretty much exhausted all avenues of relief. So from our perspective, it's time for him to be all in or all out. So we're hoping he's back soon."