All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown announced on Twitter that he will quit the NFL after being released by the New England Patriots on Friday.
“Will not be playing in the NFL anymore,” Brown wrote on Sunday morning. “These owners can cancel deals do whatever they want at anytime we will see if the NFLPA hold them accountable sad they can just void gaurantees anytime.”
Brown, who spent the offseason with the Oakland Raiders, lost out on a $30 million guaranteed contract when he was released on Sept. 7 following an eventful, dizzying offseason that saw his relationship with the organization deteriorate quickly.
Later that day, he was signed by the Patriots to a one-year, $15 million deal with $9 million guaranteed.
That guaranteed money would have been split into two separate payments with $5 million set to come his way on Monday.
But Brown and the Patriots never got there.
The Patriots opted to part ways with 31-year-old after just 11 days as he is currently being investigated by the NFL on two separate charges of sexual assault — a second accuser coming forward Monday in a Sports Illustrated report.
A clause in Brown’s contract with the Patriots forfeits any guaranteed money because he did not alert the team of any potential investigations.
Another line in his contract states that guarantees will “null and void” if he “takes any action that materially undermines the public’s respect for, or is materially critical of, the Club, the Player’s teammates or the Club’s ownership, coaches.”
Per ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, Brown will file a grievance and will be represented by the NFL Player’s Association.
Brown was initially named in a civil lawsuit just two days after being signed by the New England Patriots and one day before the start of the 2019 NFL season by former college classmate and trainer, Britney Taylor, for an alleged incident that took place in June 2017 while he was a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Taylor had accused Brown of sexually assaulting her on three separate occasions, but criminal charges were not brought up by Pittsburgh Police because of a “statute of limitations issue,” per the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office.
The NFL has interviewed both Taylor and Brown’s second accuser as the league attempts to delegate the proper punishment.
Brown continued to rant on Twitter after revealing his decision to quit the NFL as he went after former bosses and teammates. He called out Patriots owner Robert Kraft for his recent involvement in a massage-parlor sex scandal and former teammate Ben Roethlisberger for getting a four-game suspension when he was accused of sexual assault back in 2008.
He also went after Hall-of-Fame tight end and Fox Sports personality Shannon Sharpe for a 2010 incident in which he was accused of sexually assaulting and threatening a woman.
