There has been a lot of chatter surrounding New England Patriots offensive lineman Trent Brown throughout the 2023/24 NFL season. He has been accused of being late to meetings, missing games and practices for undisclosed reasons and/or laziness, and is allegedly unwilling to play through minor injuries.

Brown doesn’t agree. The 30-year-old tackle told his side of the story in an interview with NESN on Tuesday.

It started with a rebuttal to the reports from within the organization. Brown considers the leaks untrue.

It’s been a rough year. This has been a year like no other that I’ve had in my NFL career as far as the amount of anonymous sources that have come forward to spew complete lies about my character. It’s been tough to even go in the building every day knowing that there’s somebody that I probably look at every day, or smiles in my face every day, that is running a smear campaign.

— Trent Brown, via nesn

Earlier in the year, the Boston Herald reported that Brown wants out of New England. He supposedly spoke openly about his desire to leave and join an NFC team next season.

The man himself denies any such chatter.

I’ve never said anything about any NFC team or anything like that. It’s always been about me being wherever God wants me to be, and me handling my current situation.

— Trent Brown, via NESN

Brown, the starting left tackle for the Patriots this season, made only eight starts. He missed six games.

His reasons for the missed time, if true, is completely fair. Multiple illnesses, including the flue, strep throat and bronchitis kept him off of the field and he was sick for “pretty much the last month.”

Going even further back to OTAs, Brown said that he chose not to attend because he “wanted to be a dad.” A travel issue supposedly caused him to be late to minicamp.

In addition, Brown claims that New England requested an early arrival to training camp. That didn’t go over well.

As a nine-year vet, that had me a little ticked off because you got me reporting with the rookies and I’m not injured.

— Trent Brown, Via NESN

He also alleged that the New England Patriots coaching staff intentionally targeted him. Brown said that the coaching staff went out of its way to break him down.

I’ve even heard from coaches how they’ll sit in staff meetings and they’ll be talking about how they can f— with me. Like, I guess trying to get me out of character or whatever. It’s really crazy to think we’re spending time talking about that instead of getting better.

— Trent Brown, via NESN

Despite all of his frustrations with the organization, Brown surprisingly said that he is actually open to a return. It would obviously require a conversation.

I think before that would take place, some things would need to be hashed out and understood.

— Trent Brown, via NESN

He also says that it would require a better treatment of players by the organization. More money might help too.

There just needs to be more attention on signing and drafting good players. And also understanding that Foxboro is not a vacation spot. You’ve gotta spend money to get good players, and you’ve gotta spend money to keep your good players in-house. And once they’re in-house, you’ve gotta treat them with some respect and common decency as a human being.

— Trent Brown, via NESn

Although Brown said that he is open to a return, it seems unlikely that this relationship could be mended, no? It seems like both parties would be content with a mutual parting of ways…