Rostradamus's four downs: The Antonio Brown saga

It has been known for quite a while that some athletes are not good role models.

To the trained eye, that had been known long before Charles Barkley declared that he is "not a role model" in a 1993 Nike commercial.

Since it came out, we've had some great so-called role models who have set a great example for the rest of us in society, haven't we?

Based on the example that Antonio Brown has set for us, I have a fool-proof plan to get myself a job as a beat reporter for the Chicago Bears at the Chicago Tribune.

-- Post a Facebook Live video of a private speech by my company's CEO.

-- Throw a temper tantrum and toss the company refrigerator around after not getting as many pages as I wanted to for my sports section.

-- Get into an argument with the Ford County Record's editor that will get me kicked out of the office, then skip all the games in my area and not cover them at all. Come deadline day, I'll just do half of the pages I need to do, then leave the office without finishing the pages.

-- Get fired, and then re-hired by a newspaper that has not won any Illinois Press Association awards in almost 20 years, and get paid twice the salary I received at the Record.

-- Get frostbite on my hands while not wearing protective gloves at a football game played under frigid conditions.

-- Threaten to retire from sports journalism if I don't get to use a specific type of camera for sports photography.

-- Finally, I'll miss some deadlines, say some racial slurs at the newspaper company's general manager, record a private conversation with my editor without his/her consent and request that I get fired from that paper.

Sounds like a solid plan, right? Oh, wait: That's not how the real world works? I'll be lucky to get a job anywhere, in any existing industry, if I do any of the things listed above?

Then how do you explain the New England Patriots signing Brown?

It just seems like he gets what he wants not just in spite of, but in many ways because, of behavior that would ruin the careers of anyone working in the real world.

Now, Brown is being accused of rape in a civil lawsuit.

I'm not a judge or jury, and know nothing about what happened between him and his accuser. But if he did the things of which he is being accused, I would think there would be the same kind of book thrown at him that any player, or any person in the real world, would receive.

Based on the luck that Brown has had over the past few years, however, I think somehow, he is going to be rewarded for it. Whether that happens or not, just remember that Brown is, as Barkley said more than 25 years ago, "not a role model."