AP

On Sunday, we explained that Antonio Brown directly controlled his ability to play in his first game with the Patriots. That continues to apparently be the case, but like everything else with Brown it’s subject to change.

Ian Rapoport of the NFL reports that the Patriots have heard nothing from the NFL suggesting that Brown wouldn’t be allowed to play.

Brown has practiced on Wednesday and Thursday, his frozen feet have fully thawed, and from a football standpoint the question was, and still is, whether he has gotten sufficiently familiarity with the playbook and comfortable in the offense.

Still, if the NFL doesn’t want the man who has overshadowed Season 100 on the field, he won’t be. The only question is whether the league nudges the Patriots to not play him, or whether the NFL simply shuts him down by placing him on the Commissioner-Exempt list.

Meanwhile, Brown still doesn’t have a number — which is odd since Marshall Newhouse, added to the team after Brown, does.