Couple of articles out of the Bay Area following the 49ers loss to Arizona on Sunday focusing on Antonio Bryant’s temper. Apparently his reputation preceded him and it took all of one game for it to rear it’s ugly head.
I’ll give you some article excerpts first, but then check out the video from NFL Live and listen to Salisbury defend him…I have to agree, AB was obviously dragged down out of bounds and appears to be pointing it out to the ref, not taunting. You can decide for yourself after the jump.
First article is from The Sacramento Bee. Starts out with words between AB and his QB Alex Smith:
Cardinals cornerback Eric Green isn’t the only player Antonio Bryant wanted to tangle with Sunday afternoon.
Minutes after the 49ers’ loss in Arizona, the hot-blooded receiver told reporters he was so frustrated with his reception-less first half that he was ready to duke it out with quarterback Alex Smith, too.
…
Smith said Monday that Bryant was well-behaved in the huddle but that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a confrontation — or two or three — in the future.
“Absolutely. He and I might butt heads if we’re struggling or something,” said Smith, whose 288 passing yards were a career best. “If we’re not getting things going, absolutely it might happen. In the heat of the game, a lot of things get said.”
Smith and coach Mike Nolan said they understood that tantrums were part of Bryant’s nature.
Nolan seems to expect some trouble from the wideout at all times:
Asked if he was concerned Bryant, who battled Green throughout the game and had a late unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty, would get the team in trouble, Nolan had a blunt response: “For as long as we’re together — yes.”
But the coach said he realized he would have to balance Bryant’s ability with his temper as soon as he signed him to a four-year deal this spring.
“That’s part of him,” Nolan said. “I love everything about him. I love his competitiveness. … We’ll have our moments, but I’m certainly glad he’s here.”
Another article in the Mercury News details AB losing his temper in the opener against Arizona:
But Bryant did lose his cool after a long gain late in the game. Bryant had been feuding all afternoon with Cardinals cornerback Eric Green, who early in the day was penalized for taking a swing at him.
After Bryant’s late 46-yard catch, Green pulled the receiver down from behind, appearing to grab his shoulder pads. Bryant jumped to his feet, barked at Green and stuck a finger in his face. Bryant received a penalty for taunting.
Bryant said he thought the Cardinals were trying to capitalize on his reputation and get under his skin. “They know I’m one of them crazy guys,” he said. “I’m the crazy one. So I kind of figured they were going to try to do little things to try to get at me. But it just started getting irritating.”
Update: I started writing this article yesterday and didn’t finish it up, and then today in the Mercury News they have another article, this is four in as many days in the SF media…this one has Bryant defending himself in the penalty:
All I hear from people calling me is why did you get a taunting penalty?” said Bryant, who finished with four catches for 114 yards in his 49ers debut. “Do you think I actually put that much energy in trying to taunt this man? We’re in the game trying to make a comeback, which we were so close to doing. That was the last thing on my mind, taunting this guy. It was a bad call by the ref – point-blank, period.”
Bryant had just caught Alex Smith’s fourth-down pass for a 46-yard gain to the Arizona 11 with around 40 seconds left. Green rode Bryant out of bounds, then hauled him down and pushed his head to the ground. Bryant jumped up, wagged a finger in Green’s face and told him what he thought of the hit. The penalty, for unsportsmanlike conduct, cost the 49ers 15 yards.
“Let’s be honest: if it was Tom Brady, that would have been a flag” for unnecessary roughness, Bryant said. “If it was Brett Favre, it would have been a flag. If they did that to any one of those dudes it would have been a flag. A guy tackled me out of bounds and I felt disrespected after the ref threw a flag on me.”
It’s kind of silly for Bryant to compare himself to quarterbacks around the league. He should have compared himself to some high profile receivers instead.
The article also questions how much the call really affected the outcome:
As it turned out, the 49ers kicked a field goal after Bryant’s catch and got the ball back on an onside kick with enough time for two more cracks at the end zone. Both passes fell incomplete, including one to Bryant that was broken up in the back of the end zone.
Then the best part of any article here. AB takes a shot at Va Tech from his Pitt days:
While Bryant wishes he could get another chance at making that final catch, he said he wouldn’t have done anything differently in the confrontation with Green. He added that Green, a former Virginia Tech player, “probably still has a problem with me because I used to kill Va-Tech.”
And he did used to kill them. Pitt used to kill Va Tech, until they had to stop playing them when VT left for the ACC.
Here is the video clip from NFL Live with Bryant being defended by Salisbury. You can clearly see Bryant get up after the hit and point at Green WHILE LOOKING AT THE REF. I’ve never seen a player taunt another player while talking to a ref:
