Former NFL star Antonio Brown slammed the media as ‘crazy’ when he took to the stage on behalf of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday but saved special treatment for Kamala Harris’ running mate.
Tim Walz is known as ‘coach’ around the Harris campaign for his years as a high school football and basketball coach.
‘He isn’t a real football coach,’ said Brown, who made his name as a spectacular wide receiver with the Pittsburgh Steelers. ‘He couldn’t guard me.’
Brown wore a MAGA hat as he took the stage ahead of Trump’s appearance in front of thousands of fans at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, about an hour’s drive from Pittsburgh.
The ex-Steelers star, who left Pennsylvania in 2018 when he was traded to the Raiders addressed the crowd of Trump supporters after teasing his appearance on social media earlier this week.
He likened his own rise against the odds as a lowly sixth round draft pick to Trump’s unlikely emergence as president.
But before he set out the case for electing Trump in November (and stumped for a crypto coin) the star had a message for reporters at the event.
‘I know the media is going to call me crazy… Trump crazy for having me speak here,’ said a man who once made as many headlines for his bizarre behavior as he did his exploits on the field.
‘But I want to make this clear. We are not. They are.’
The Super Bowl winner arrived alongside fellow former Steeler, Le’Veon Bell, who donned a t-shirt featuring photos of Trump and opponent Kamala Harris with the slogan, ‘Trump or the Tramp?’
The pair of former footballers greeted the crowd as they posed for selfies with the supporters waiting in line to enter the rally just under three hours before it was slated to begin.
Brown had hinted he would be making a speech earlier this week in a social media post, which contained a screenshot of an email allegedly from Trump’s campaign.
‘Time to help make REAL Change,’ he wrote alongside the photo. ‘Time to make a Difference. It is Time.’
Brown has been outspoken of his support of the 45th president online, most recently accusing NBC of plotting against fellow Trump supporter Elon Musk at a Steelers game earlier this month.
The X chief had whipped Pittsburgh fans into a frenzy as he attended a prime-time game at Acrisure Stadium – a day after joining Donald Trump on stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Despite the 53-year-old’s attendance at the Steelers’ Week 5 matchup, Musk failed to receive the Taylor Swift treatment as NBC’s coverage didn’t appear to show him in the stands.
Brown claimed the network intentionally avoiding Musk on its broadcast as a form of media censorship against Trump’s campaign.
‘Another reason to get out in Vote,’ he posted. ‘Media censoring is real and will only get worse unless change.’
There is no evidence to suggest that NBC did intentionally avoid showing Musk as Brown alleged. DailyMail.com contacted NBC Sports for comment.
Brown first publicly endorsed Trump in May and even vowed to help him celebrate a second term.
‘I’ll endorse Trump,’ Brown told Outkick. ‘I never met him. I have admiration for his business moves and I study his dad, Fred Trump.
‘But I think Donald Trump is a good businessman, he comes from a good family and he’s been a good president.
He added: ‘You know he likes black people running campaigns, preferably football players. So Donald Trump, you heard it right here from the mouth of AB man: inauguration, send me my bag or whatever…’
Brown also praised Trump for the ‘great things’ he had done ‘for a lot of my brothers in the music industry.’
Even in retirement, the 35-year-old has rarely been out of the headlines due to financial issues and a string of controversial outbursts on social media which has seen him taunt the likes of Caitlin Clark and Tom Brady.
Just last month, he taunted Taylor Swift amid her romance with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce.
The former wideout referred to Swift’s anatomy before appearing to suggest that Kelce should date a black woman.
Prior to that, he wrote alongside a photo of Taylor and Brittany Mahomes hugging each other: ‘White People for Trump’.
It came after Brittany, the wife of Chiefs quarterback Patrick and close friend of the popstar, faced backlash for liking a Trump-related post.
In March, he shared what seemed to be an AI-generated cartoon image of himself in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, kissing the songstress , who is wearing a light blue cheerleader’s uniform.
‘Move over Jizelle, what these Swifties talkin bout? #CTESPN,’ he wrote alongside the image on X, formerly known as Twitter, referring to Tom Brady’s ex-wife Gisele Bundchen.
Brown appeared to be attempting to rile up Taylor’s fans, known as ‘Swifties’, who are renowned for their fierce loyalty and protectiveness of the Anti-Hero hitmaker.
Brown was one of the best players in his position during the 2010s.
But the end of his career is remembered for the way he was traded to the Oakland Raiders but left before playing a game and then clashed with leadership at his next two teams, being cut after winning the Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but later stripping of his uniform and leaving the field during a game against the New York Jets.
However, in Pittsburgh he remains a record breaking star who delivered explosive plays.
Trump is all in on Pennsylvania this weekend.
On Sunday he mans a McDonald’s fry station near Philadelphia, holds a town hall in Lancaster, and will attend the Pittsburgh Steelers game in the evening.
Of the seven battlegrounds, Pennsylvania is the most consequential.
The state is likely to provide the tipping point in the election. Its 19 electoral college votes could take one candidate or the other past the threshold for victory on Nov. 5.
To win, Trump needs high turn-out in the deep red counties around the blue-collar city of Pittsburgh to counteract Harris’ support in the big urban areas.
Trump won the state in 2016 by fewer than 70,000 votes. He lost it four years later by a little more.
The latest DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners poll shows that it could not be closer.
If the election were tomorrow, each candidate would win 47 percent of the vote.
Harris was spending Saturday at a get-out-the-vote event in Detroit, Michigan, alongside Michigan-born rapper Lizzo, on the first day of early voting.
Then she was due to travel to Atlanta, Georgia, for a rally with pop singer Usher.