Antonio Brown Allegedly Threatened His Indoor Football Team’s Former Head Coach + Players Leave Due To Missed Payments
Antonio Brown Allegedly Threatened His Indoor Football Team’s Former Head Coach + Players Leave Due To Missed Payments
Looks like Antonio Brown is stirring up trouble as a football team owner.
According to reports, Antonio Brown is being accused of causing chaos with his indoor football team, the Albany Empire, an organization in the National Arena League that is owned by the controversial former NFL star.
Reportedly, the 34-year-old made violent threats toward the team’s former head coach. Players have also allegedly not been paid. In fact, ex-head coach Damon Ware and quarterback Sam Castronova both left the team due to Brown’s crazy antics.
According to Damon Ware, Antonio Brown’s ownership was a catastrophe from the start. He elaborated that it was a “hostile takeover” when the former wide receiver came on board in March, forcing other owners out by throwing money their way.
Damon Ware said the main issue since Brown’s takeover has been getting staff and players paid. His conversations with Brown about people not receiving direct deposits often resulted in him receiving violent threatening text messages from the ex-NFL player, according to reports.
Ware also shared that Brown, who now owns 95% of the team, was a nightmare to work with. He said that the Super Bowl champ’s ego got in the way of improving the team and helping players move on to the next level. Ware said,
“It became all about him, not the football team. We built a wonderful organization over three years — he came in and killed it.”
Team members typically expect their checks the week after each game. However, players reportedly were not paid for their past two games in April.
In addition to missed payments, team members were allegedly locked out of their hotel rooms. Once they arrived at their team hotel, Ware, the captains, and several other players discovered their room keys no longer worked. According to hotel staffers, Brown was responsible for the incident and instructed the hotel not to allow the men into the rooms.
Reportedly, the team had to go through hoops just to get their belongings out of their rooms and went through housekeeping in order to make it happen.
Although the Albany Empire has followed up with one missed payment so far, Ware, Sam Castronova, and several other key players claim they are fed up with the team and they’re looking forward to restarting their careers elsewhere.
Ware added,
“It’s a happy day for me to be out of this crazy situation. Goodbye, good riddance.”
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