Antonio Brown on opposing players: ‘They want to take me out. They want to kill me’

Antonio Brown looked unstoppable during much of the 2015 season. The Pittsburgh Steelers receiver led the league with 136 receptions (second-best all time) and 2,074 all-purpose yards, and his 1,874 receiving yards ranked second in the league and fourth all-time.

But he was stopped -- by Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict, whose hit to the helmet in overtime during an AFC wild-card playoff game gave Brown a concussion and prevented him from playing the following week in a season-ending loss to Denver in the divisional round.

So it’s understandable if Brown doesn’t quite trust the motives of opposing defenders these days.

“I feel like guys don’t want to stop me no more,” Brown said when asked about Burfict’s hit during a radio interview Thursday morning. “They want to take me out. They want to kill me. They want to steal my dreams. They want to ruin me. They want to end me.

“But we’re not going to let them. What we’re going to do is win more.”

Burfict received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the play and was later suspended for three games by the NFL for repeated violations of league rules on dangerous hits.

While the hit obviously didn’t kill him, Brown said he had symptoms such as “no energy, bad balance, dizziness, headaches” for more than a week afterward.

Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones later accused Brown of faking his injury.

“I don’t even know why people give him the platform to say something so ridiculous,” Brown said.

Jones ended up apologizing on social media after Brown was ruled out of the next week’s game. But Brown sounds like he still doesn’t think too highly of Jones.

“The guy texted me,” Brown said. “No reply.”