Antonio Brown: an examination of a troubling post-NFL life

The Herald Scotland

3 days ago

"I can't let them take me out," Brown said with a laugh. "... Nah. AB snuck out the back door."
The context was unspoken but clear. A little less than three weeks earlier, Brown had flown to the Middle East after authorities in Miami-Dade County charged him with attempted second-degree murder. According to a copy of the arrest warrant obtained by USA TODAY Sports, he allegedly grabbed a security guard's gun and fired two shots at an acquaintance outside an amateur boxing event May 16.
Brown, 37, described the charge as "fake" in a post on social media but has a warrant out for his arrest - the latest twist in what has been a tumultuous three-year stretch since he last played professional football.
After removing his jersey and walking off the field midway through a game in January 2022, Brown has attempted to reinvent himself as a musician, entrepreneur and crude-humored influencer on social media. He has recorded songs with well-known rappers, and briefly owned an arena football team. But he has also faced a consistent string of legal issues, including criminal charges, lawsuits alleging unpaid bills and, most recently, Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings.
According to court records, the former wideout could soon be forced to sell two of his Florida homes to repay more than $3.5 million in debt. He has publicly estimated that he made more than $100 million during his NFL career.
"Yeah, I'm (expletive) up," he said with a smile, when asked about the bankruptcy proceedings on "The Pivot" podcast last summer. "I just can't comply with debts. ... I'm not broke, but I'm fractured."
Brown did not reply to interview requests sent via e-mail and social media. USA TODAY Sports also contacted 15 people who were or are in the former NFL star's orbit, including family members, current and former attorneys, business associates and former teammates. All of them either did not respond to messages or declined to comment on Brown. One associate requested compensation in exchange for an interview, which violates USA TODAY's code of ethics.
In social media posts, livestreams and podcast interviews, however, the man commonly known as "AB" has offered frequent, if incomplete, glimpses into his life and mindset after football.
"The first rule of life is self-preservation," Brown said on the "Assets Over Liabilities" podcast less than a year after his retirement from the NFL. "You've got to take care of yourself first. If you ain't self-sufficient, you can't really take care of no one else."
A once great NFL career sputters
In many ways, Brown's first three years outside of professional football have been a continuation of his last three years within it.
After making seven Pro Bowls in nine seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Miami native was traded to the Las Vegas Raiders in 2019 and his career began to sputter. He bounced between three teams in three years, while also facing multiple league suspensions and lawsuits -- including separate claims that he sexually assaulted a former trainer and assaulted a moving truck driver. (Brown settled the lawsuit filed by the trainer, which included an allegation of rape that he denied, and lost a $1.2 million judgment to the truck driver.)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released Brown after he left the field midway through the penultimate game of the 2021 season. And although he didn't immediately announce his retirement, his focus began to shift.
Brown was announced as the president of Donda Sports, the sports arm of a company founded by controversial musician Ye. He released rap songs under the name "AB," including one track featuring prominent rapper Young Thug. And he traveled to Dubai and hung out with Floyd Mayweather ahead of one of the boxer's fights.
Later that summer, Brown signed a record deal with Secure The Bag (STB) Entertainment, which gave him a $150,000 advance and arranged for him to perform at a hip-hop music festival called Rolling Loud. But the relationship quickly soured when he sent the company an invoice for $178,000 after returning from the festival, which STB Entertainment refused to pay, according to a lawsuit later filed by the company.
Brown stopped returning messages from STB Entertainment's owner, Ryan Kane, and began publicly distancing himself from the company with which he had signed a distribution contract, according to court records.
"I don't got a deal with nobody, man," Brown said on "Assets Over Liabilities" that fall, when asked about rumors he had secured a different record deal. "I own myself."
It wasn't just the lawsuit, however, that defined Brown's first fall since leaving the NFL. In October, the New York Post published video of Brown exposing himself to a woman at a hotel pool in Dubai. (He dismissed the footage in a social-media post as "disinformation.")
He also faced a misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly throwing a shoe at a woman while attempting to evict her from a house in Tampa. She later declined to press charges. USA TODAY Sports does not identify the victims of alleged domestic violence without their permission.
After football, Brown faces numerous lawsuits
Brown has been party to at least 10 lawsuits since retiring from the NFL, according to USA TODAY Sports research. Some alleged that he broke contracts, did not repay bills and did not return lucrative pieces of jewelry. One civil case claims Brown sold the plaintiff -- Kane, the STB Entertainment head -- a fake Richard Mille watch for $160,000. Kane's attorney did not provide answers to written questions about his interactions with Brown.
Brown has also filed several legal complaints himself -- some of which cited esoteric legal statutes and appear to have been drafted without the help of a lawyer.
After Tampa police responded to the domestic incident in Tampa in late 2022, for example, Brown filed a document accusing officers of trespassing and seeking $68 million in damages from Hillsborough County.
One year later, he filed a 65-page complaint in federal court against 11 different entities, including lawyers and a state judge, after he was arrested for failing to pay child support. Brown - who, according to the 2018 Steelers' media guide, was born in Miami - identified himself in the document as "a foreign national by birth but not a citizen of the United States. He alleged, among other things, violations of the 1886 Civil Rights Act. The case was swiftly dismissed by a judge, who called it "a quintessential shotgun pleading."
While juggling various legal claims, Brown has also remained in the public eye.
In March 2023, he was introduced as a new co-owner of the Albany Empire, a National Arena League football team for which his father, Eddie "Touchdown" Brown, had previously been a star player. Within three months, the Empire was booted from the league because it said Brown failed to pay league membership fees and fines. Game checks for players also went unpaid, according to The Albany Times-Union.
"I feel like this was his plan all along," Empire wide receiver Fabian Guerra told the newspaper. "I feel like he does stuff for social media and to sell his songs. I think it's just what he does. That's the type of guy he is. No one trusts him anymore."
'People don't understand'
Since retiring, Brown has been a frequent guest on podcasts and TV shows, sitting for lengthy interviews in which he's discussed his music career, his stance on social media and his hopes of being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2027.
During an appearance on "The Pivot" podcast last summer, Brown said he meets with a therapist to talk about trauma from his football career. When co-host Fred Taylor said there are people who are concerned about him, Brown interjected.
"I just feel like people don't understand," he said. "It's always when people don't understand, you're crazy. Or you're not from where I'm from, so you don't get to understand it."
Brown has talked openly and repeatedly about chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurodegenerative brain disease more commonly known as CTE. He has also posted videos and conducted interviews for a self-described sports outlet that he's dubbed "CTESPN" -- a crude combination of the popular sports network and the disease that has been found in the brains of deceased NFL players.
It was on CTESPN's social media accounts that he announced in May 2024 he had filed for bankruptcy - alongside a video clip featuring a comedic moment from "The Office."
In initial court filings, Brown claimed to have less than $50,000 in assets. But that figure has changed drastically in subsequent filings, as he included or revealed additional assets technically owned by trusts or corporate entities he controls.
Creditors and the trustee assigned to the case have criticized Brown for the financial mixups and his conduct in court - including a March hearing that he asked to postpone because he said he was dealing with an unspecified medical issue.
"The Debtor, however, was not in poor health," the U.S. trustee later wrote in a court filing. "In fact, the Debtor participated as an invited guest on The Joe Rogan Experience (a podcast) for 98 minutes the very next day."
Brown's first bankruptcy attorney has since resigned and his case has been converted to Chapter 7 - a form of bankruptcy in which the court can seize assets and garnish wages to repay creditors. (His current bankruptcy attorney, Chad Van Horn, declined comment.)
According to court records obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the trustee in Brown's case is in the process of selling two of his homes, and also asking a judge to force him to provide accurate financial data to the court. The next hearing in the case is July 24.
Andrew Dawson, a professor of bankruptcy law at the University of Miami, said the bankruptcy proceedings are actually protecting Brown by pausing any lawsuits filed against him and preventing new suits from being filed. But disobeying court orders could, in theory, prompt a judge to throw out the case.
"If he loses the protection, in some ways, he might be worse off," Dawson said. "Now, creditors are actually aware that, wow, he owes a lot of money to a lot of people, and there may be some property we didn't know. It leads to what we sort of call the proverbial race to the courthouse. Everyone wants to go and file their claim."
Brown apparently in United Arab Emirates
One will find little evidence of Brown's financial issues on his social media feeds, where he portrays himself as living the same luxurious lifestyle he led when he was in the NFL.
Since arriving in the Middle East nearly six weeks ago, he has posted images of sprawling marble floors and flashy sports cars. He celebrated his 37th birthday on a yacht with several of his children. On June 26, he posted a screenshot on X of an account balance exceeding $24 million. "Bankrupt over," he wrote in part of the caption.
Tamara Lave, a former public defender and law professor at the University of Miami, said the frequent social media posts could complicate Brown's bankruptcy claims because they could be later used against him in court. "I think silence would be a virtue for him, right now," she said.
Brown also is still wanted by the state of Florida after he allegedly fired two gunshots at Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, 41, during the May 16 incident in Miami. According to the arrest warrant, the shots came after a physical altercation between Brown and Nantambu, who previously sued the former NFL wide receiver, won a judgment of nearly $1 million from a jury and is now among the creditors named in Brown's bankruptcy case.
Miami police have repeatedly declined to answer questions about the warrant or Brown's case, citing "an open active investigation." And it is unclear whether they, or the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, are aware of Brown's whereabouts or have been in contact with him or his attorney.
At least as of July 23, Brown appeared to be living in the United Arab Emirates, according to social media posts. Lave said that would mean he could only be taken into custody in one of two ways: If he returned to the United States, where he would likely be detained by Customs and Border Protection, or if the U.S. asked the UAE to extradite him.
"I think it's more a geopolitical question - what the UAE would want to do in terms of the relationship with our president," Lave said.
Brown campaigned for President Donald Trump and spoke at one of his rallies last fall.
Online, at least, Brown remains relatively easy to find. He has 2.5 million followers on X, where many of his posts include racist, homophobic or otherwise vulgar language. He has also hosted multiple livestreams in what appears to be an attempt to drum up interest for a Belize-based gambling company, BC.GAME.
During one such stream, which is no longer archived online, Brown balked at the suggestion from a commenter that he was "hiding out" in the Middle East.
"I'm here full-time," he said. "We're not hiding."
Contact Tom Schad at [e-mail] or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.