Antonio Brown giveth, Antonio Brown taketh away.
And now the previous NFL star turned owner of the Albany Empire of the National Arena League is facing a possible class-action lawsuit from some Empire players and coaches, in response to the Times Union of Albany.
Empire coach Moe Leggett alleged that the staff and players were paid following the Empire’s final game against the Orlando Predators on June 9 as normal.
Nonetheless, a short time later, Leggett said players and coaches noticed the checks had been reversed and brought out of their bank accounts, the Times Union reported.
The players are owed $500 or more from that game, in response to the report.
Leggett told the newspaper that he had tried to imagine in Brown, but that the trust had deteriorated.
“I’m frustrated,” Leggett said to the Times Union. “I attempted to offer [Brown] the advantage of the doubt. I attempted to work with him. I used to be attempting to be the peacemaker, the mediator to be certain that things ran easily and slightly below the radar. But I can now not try this.”
He expanded on that in a separate interview with News10, an Albany ABC affiliate.
“It’s a really unlucky situation that we’re being put in,” Leggett said. “We just wish to put it behind us. Just pay what the blokes are owed and we’ll just move on. No hard feelings. But you’re twiddling with people’s livelihoods.”
In one other report from the Times Union, team accountant Alex Gunaris told the outlet in an email that missing equipment was the rationale for paychecks being withheld.
“We’re reviewing and gathering information on stolen property and equipment not being returned to us after the last game,” Gunaris told the outlet in an email. “Football gear and other items were missing after we were faraway from the league. Football helmets, shoulder pads, jerseys, equipment, etc. are on this list. Once we get a listing of players who returned equipment we are going to reissue payments.”
Brown’s tenure as owner of the Empire has been full of controversy since he became majority owner of the team in April.
Brown and the Empire were booted from the NAL earlier this month and he allegedly owes the league $21,000.
The situation has put players and staff in a nasty spot and left them without some other strategy to get the cash they feel they deserve.
Former Empire wide receiver Fabian Guerra supported the choice to sue Brown.
“I feel like this was his plan all along,” Guerra told the Times Union. “I feel like he does stuff for social media and to sell his songs. I feel it’s just what he does. That’s the sort of guy he’s. Nobody trusts him anymore. I see it hard for him to get any future deals going due to how he’s as an individual.”
Leggett remains to be in search of a lawyer to take the case.
“My feelings are in all places because I feel like he’s mainly doing us so mistaken to the purpose of no return,” lineman Brandon Thorpe wrote in a text to the Times Union.
Brown played 12 seasons within the NFL, earning 4 All-Pro nods and 7 trips to the Pro Bowl.
He twice was the NFL’s receptions leader (2014, 2015) and was also twice its receiving yardage leader (2014, 2017).
He’s also remembered for a litany of on-field incidents, including stripping off a part of his uniform mid-game when his Buccaneers were playing the Jets at MetLife Stadium on Jan. 2, 2022.
