After three short months, it appears that Antonio Brown's time as the owner of the Albany Empire has come to an end. Actually, he still technically owns the team, he just doesn't have a league to play in after the National Arena League (NAL) terminated the Empire's membership on Thursday.
The league took the drastic measure after Brown refused to pay money that he owed to the NAL.
"After exhausting all avenues, the NAL board of owners have decided unanimously to terminate the membership agreement of the Albany Empire," the league wrote in a statement." The decision was reached after an emergency conference call of the members in good standing to discuss the Empire's failure to pay their league mandated and overdue assessments."
There are seven teams in the league and each team is responsible for paying one-seventh of the league's operating budget. Apparently, not only did Brown fall behind by two payments, but he refused to pay up after he was hit with a $1,000 fine for some comments he made about the league.
"After acquiring the Albany Empire, new team owner Antonio Brown paid the Empire's April assessment," the league said. "The team then failed to make their May 15th assessment payment and last week just before the Empire's game in Orlando, the league was notified that the April assessment was being challenged."
Brown's accountant, Alex Gunaris, told the NAL that the former NFL receiver probably wouldn't end up paying what was owed. At that point, the league gave Brown until noon on Thursday to make the payment. When the money didn't show up, the league decided to terminate Albany's membership.
"Unfortunately Mr. Brown has failed to meet the deadline to his teams required financial obligations, and as a result the league has terminated his membership Agreement," the league said in a statement.
Brown's entire tenure as owner has been one giant disaster. The former Steelers star bought the Empire in March and trouble started almost immediately. According to multiple reports, players and staff weren't being paid as recently as late April and the team's former head coach (Damon Ware) ended up leaving the Empire over the missed payments. The team claims that the missed payments were due to a change in payroll processors that happened after Brown purchased the franchise.
Of course, there's no way to know if that excuse is true because Brown has a long history of refusing to pay people. Back in April, he was sued by a jeweler, who claims that Brown owes him more than $1 million. Brown was also sued by his marketing company for $2.4 million back in September 2021. Brown is also accused of trying to rip off a music promoter to the tune of $500,000.
The takeaway here is that if Brown owes you money, you're probably not going to ever see it. According to Spotrac, Brown made a total of $80.4 million during his 12-year career, but he hasn't played an NFL down since storming off the field shirtless during a Buccaneers win over the Jets in January 2022.
As for the Empire, the team has suffered a total collapse under Brown. The Empire actually won the last TWO NAL titles, but they won't get to go for a third because they've been kicked out of the league. At one point, Brown said he was going to suit up and play in a game for Albany, but that never ended up happening.
