Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown was aiming for a successful football career after getting selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers as the 195th overall pick in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL draft. After parting ways with the Steelers, he got enrolled on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers roster and won Super Bowl LV with them.
However, Brown got embroiled in several legal battles during his 11-year NFL stint. From tearing his jersey off and walking across the MetLife Stadium field in his last game for the Bucs to facing legal trouble regarding his ownership in the Albany Empire, the veteran has always been a regular visitor on the infamous footballer’s list.
What happened to the Albany Empire?
The National Arena League decided to kick the Albany Empire out of the league back in June this year following the team owner’s failure to pay either a required fee or a fine he received after several comments.
All arena teams have to pay one-seventh of the NAL operating budget via monthly transactions, while the ex-Steelers veteran made only the payment of April and didn’t pay May’s installment or a $1,000 fine. He challenged the April payment as well, and it was credited back to him later.
Anthony became a part-owner of the franchise in March and took over the majority ownership stake in the franchise in May. Albany’s head coach, Moe Legget, said the decision is heartbreaking for the athletes, who left no stone unturned to uplift the team.
“It’s just heartbreaking for those guys because they put their bodies on the line for this and they left their families, a lot of guys that are playing, they’re probably behind on bills and they took a chance on their abilities to get paid and to do something they love and get paid for it, so they can pay their bills and something like this happens, it’s very heartbreaking,” he said.
The Empire squad was expecting to play against the Jacksonville Sharks before getting slapped with a suspension. That game, along with the six other remaining matches, was canceled by NAL.
Antonio Brown allegedly pointed a gun at players he worked with
The Empire’s offensive lineman, Mo Ruffins, died in 2022. During training camp, the team was asked to share a birthday post for the former player, but shockingly, they avoided the request. The other players on the team didn’t like the ignorance and called out the authorities for the incident. Following the allegations, a social media post remembering the deceased star was uploaded online but later deleted.
The suspicious activity didn’t go unnoticed, and three players, including Dwayne Hollis, Darius Prince, an unnamed vet, and Ryan Larkin, a local sneaker entrepreneur, confronted Brown after making a failed attempt to get explanations from the front office. Instead of giving them a proper reason, the ex-WR threatened to retrieve a rifle from his car, per Dov Kleiman of Brobible.
“AB looked at Ryan [Larkin] and was like, ‘Hey, man, you still got the AR [rifle] in the car? Go get it. Then I was like, I’m not going to allow this dude to walk out of here after you just threatened us. … After he said that, things did calm down and we had a conversation. But the fact is that he threatened us by telling his assistant to grab his AR”, Prince said.
Hollis disclosed to the outlet that they had no intention of being involved in any kind of altercation and said they were confronting the authorities just to offer their take on the issue regarding Ruffins’ related post.
What’s your take on Brown’s continuous legal troubles? You can share your take in the comments.
