Antonio Brown isn’t getting paid to play football right now, but he’s doing his best to get paid not to play.
According to an NBC Sports Boston report, the Patriots will be on the hook for all $9 million of the bonus money in Brown’s deal – despite the fact that he was only a Patriot for 11 days. From the report, take a look at the outline of the case Brown is expected to make against New England:
“[New England] fighting to keep that signing bonus now is either a gross misunderstanding of [the CBA’s] rules on voiding signing bonuses or it’s just out of spite,” a source told Yahoo Sports. “I can’t believe they don’t understand the signing bonus voids in the CBA. There’s just no way. This is just spitefulness. They’re fighting [Brown] completely out of the anger and embarrassment in ownership.”
“If they had cut [Brown] as soon as they became aware of the civil suit, then there’s the argument of the [withholding] breach undermining the entire agreement,” another source said. “But they kept him on the roster after that lawsuit was filed. They played him in a game. They even paid him checks for [two weeks of] work. If the civil suit was a true dealbreaker, the Patriots could have shown it by breaking the deal. Their actions speak to their intent and their intent was shown when they continued to pay him after the civil suit.”
So basically, it sounds like since the Patriots did nothing when the allegations were initially made public (and even let him play in a game), the team is at serious risk of losing all $9 million of his bonus money.
Furthermore, it sounds like Brown, who has tremendous time on his hands, might go after the $30 million guaranteed in his Raiders deal, too.
Jeremy Fowler on Twitter
NFLPA working through scenarios for an Antonio Brown grievance against the Oakland Raiders, per source. Among items under consideration to try to recoup: Three fines, unpaid Week 1 salary, base salaries of $14.625/$14.5 million and $1M signing bonus.
Brown might have a legitimate case against the Patriots, but the Raiders are a long shot. AB broke about every team rule in Oakland (including at least one serious offense that has not been reported), asked for his release, and then celebrated when the Raiders let him go.
Andrew Brandt on Twitter
Lawyer here; better shot at recovery with Patriots than with Raiders. https://t.co/zsPiw46a7B
Good luck down the road finding a team that wants to sign up for more of this. If there ever was a player the owners should collude against in the future, this would be the one.
twitter: @raidersbeat
I was totally shocked when I heard the Patriots signed him a 9 million signing bonus ..that alone right there is just idiotic .but the raiders gave no signing bonus they agreed on 30 million but he had to follow team rules and he broke a lot of them but I do think there in the books for 1 million they might have to pay him 1 million and at the time seemed better than going through all this all year for 30 million..but like I said signing bonus means upfront money really
Prime example of what an ignorant, classless person attempts. This clown is so clueless as ok maybe you have shot at Pats money but attempting 2 seek money from Raiders is not only retarded but also egregious. He clearly has no intentions of playing with anyone but Kaepernick as what NFL team would ever extend this idiot an opportunity 2 play believing that should AB do something stupid (highly likely) then not only r they going 2 b embarrassed but this idiot will go after them 4 money he is undeserving of. I mean the Raiders extended him huge opportunity n dumbass blows it right from gate then acts as if he is being victimized n when contract provisions r exercised this idiot wants 2 act like he is a victim again. Did u read the contract idiot?