Antonio Brown, Brain Genius
A reader alerted me to some minor, yet hilarious news. The Albany Empire have been booted from the Arena League after not paying their bills.
Brown became the majority owner of the team roughly 3 months ago. This vaguely got some attention pretty early because guess what? Brown pretty much immediately started skimping. The coach left due to missed payments. Players and staff got cheated on payroll. Now the league basically had enough and terminated the Empire’s membership.
I can’t find any story that tells me some of the actual numbers of any of this outside mention of a $1k fine that Brown received for comments and also apparently didn’t pay. I’m genuinely curious what sort of operation costs the Arena League runs at and what Brown wasn’t paying. Brown made millions in the NFL but I’m unsure how far those millions would go in a situation like this. Not that any of this excuses Brown for being a cheap shit, but I am curious how cheap a shit he is.
Small fun fact I learned while looking this story up: Apparently Brown’s Dad played for a former Albany-based Arena league team. I figured Brown just bought the team because sports business and he fancies himself an owner/investor type, but there was actually some sentimental history there. That alone would have made me root for him to get a bit of redemption if he wasn’t, you know, Antonio Clown. Nutcase for hire. Luckily I did not root for him and can now laugh. I feel bad for everyone else in the organization though. They didn’t deserve this.
Oh yeah, I’d be down to root for Antonio Brown. If it wasn’t for the burglaries, the sexual assaults, the domestic abuse, the flashing, the child endangerment, and the all-around being a total fuckbag.
Other than that, sure sounds fun.
I found this to be the most interesting and simultaneously concerning oart of ESPN’s article on the topic: “[Antonio Brown gave] an interview in which he questioned whether “AB” was going to pay him. (He has stated in the past that AB the owner and Antonio Brown the player are different people.)” Smarmy bs to seperate himself from his irresponsibility, or a sign of an actual disassociative disorder?
The whole rigamarole about whether or not he or some Dubai based shell corporation actually owns the Empire is insane
https://www.timesunion.com/sports/article/antonio-brown-really-albany-empire-complicated-18069431.php
Also Antonio El-Allah Express Trust Enterprise probably blows Ron Mexico out of the water as the greatest NFL-adjacent incognito name.
There’s a fairly sad story about a local couple (an Engineer and a school teacher that sunk a couple hundred grand more out of a love of football than as an investment) that had the remaining 5% stake getting screwed over and harassed by Brown as well.
I’m gonna be real for a moment, I’m just waiting until Brown starts to clean up his act and try some whole redemption tour when his HoF eligibility comes up. I know it’s cynical, but I fully expect the media to downplay a lot of his shitty behavior the way they did with Moss and TO. Now, Moss and TO I don’t really think ever did anything as outwardly shitty as AB, but they were the classic “Diva” receivers that the stick-in-the-mud “just play the damn game” types love to complain about. They kind of gave TO a slap on the wrist by making him wait a year, but ultimately it wasn’t a big deal.
AB has so many other levels of shithousery that I shudder thinking at what we DON’T know about him. What about all of the things he’s done behind closed doors? Because all events up until now have painted the picture of someone who is selfish, greedy, arrogant, and quite frankly, stupid.
And yet, he was a PHENOMENAL receiver. I actually think he’s somewhat underrated in the scheme of things, but I hope he stays that way. However, I just know that he’s going to try to go hard into image rehabilitation mode and the media/public is going to eat it up. We’ll eventually downplay everything, and future generations will probably forget just how much of a scumbag nutcase this dude was.
As a Steelers fan, I remember a time not too long ago when I was SUPER psyched to have both AB and Juju as receivers. Shit was gonna be SO COOL.
…dammit.
I’m still a big Juju fan, though this year will be the hardest to watch as a Steelers fan.
I actually saw the 1999 Arena Bowl in which Touchdown Eddie Brown led the Albany Firebirds to victory in person. Future Pats WR Ty Law was in that game as well for the Orlando Predators.
Also I’m impressed Dave went with the State Museum building rather than more obvious Albany landmarks like The Egg, Corning Tower, the Nipper statue or the Carillon Tower on the SUNY campus (aka Rockefeller’s Last Erection).
The article you linked doesn’t exactly answer your question on HOW MUCH but apparently each team is supposed to pay 1/7th of the bill…. however much that bill is.
I, too, would be interested to know how much this is but whatever it is, I’m sure he could afford it. He’s rich and famous and part of how those people stay like that is that banks just give them lines of credit in perpetuity because it works out better for them in the end (they eventually go after the heirs for the final bill but sometimes it takes generations before they do). He has no excuse for not paying besides – like you said – Antonio Clown.
As a resident of the Albany area and a huge fan of his father, FUCK AB. What a POS. Took a 2x champion that was thriving and ran it into the ground in less than a quarter of a year.
Can we get the River Rats back now at least?
I would love to see the Rats return. Probably will never happen.
AB have been in goblin mode for years now.