NAPA – The “Hard Knocks” camera crew following Antonio Brown asked to see his ailing feet.
The Raiders receiver kept his socks on for a second.
“You want to see it?” Brown said, with a wry smile. “Are you sure you want to see it?”
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The answer was yes. The sock came off and exposed the sole of his foot -- both are jacked up -- which was was peeling and blistering after suffering from frostbite during a cryotherapy session gone awry.
“I was on vacation in Paris and I was training,” Brown said, in a segment aired during Tuesday’s episode of “Hard Knocks” on HBO. “I was trying cold therapy to recover my body. I got out and I felt my foot burning. I felt a hot sensation, so over the next 24 hours or so it swelled up. I couldn’t really walk or put pressure [on them].”
Then came gruesome details of the early healing process, which indicate the trial Brown has endured while rehabbing his feet.
“The doctor came over and drained a little out,” Brown said. “He scalpeled it the next day. Then freaking scissors the next day. He just kind of let it leak all out. As everything leaked all out, I was able to put a lot of pressure on them.
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“Thankfully, my trainer was working me out because I couldn’t be on my feet. I’m crawling and stuff, and working to get everything else better. Now it’s like new skin, and I have to get my feet used to it. I feel like I just have a big patch of open whoopee cushion, you know?”
Raiders coach Jon Gruden said Saturday that Brown’s foot issue was not his fault -- Brown's camp is considering legal action against the French cryotherapy center -- and that it was no laughing matter. That seems accurate considering the difficulty of his rehab, which will end with him returning to 100 percent.
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Brown tried to find humor in the situation during his “Hard Knocks” interview.
“Yeah. I f---ing got circumcised on my feet,” Brown said. “Hopefully my feet are born again, and I can run faster. Feel sorry for me later. Thank you.”
