15 June 2023 , 21:01
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Former NFL star and controversial figure Antonio Brown has seen his own football team be kicked out of the National Arena League after failing to pay money owned.
The league has taken the unique approach to terminate the team's membership after a board of owners meeting unanimously decided Brown's team's fate.
In a statement, the league wrote: "After exhausting all avenues, the NAL board of owners have decided unanimously to terminate the membership agreement of the Albany Empire. The decision was reached after an emergency conference call of the members in good standing to discuss the Empire’s failure to pay their league mandated and overdue assessments.
"Each team is responsible to pay for 1/7 of the league’s operating budget via monthly assessments starting in April.
"The Empire’s owner, Antonio Brown, was also fined $1,000 for Conduct Detrimental to the League for his recent public comments. Mr. Brown refused to pay that fine."
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It comes just three months after Brown became owner, which had quickly become somewhat of a circus, with trouble beginning just weeks into his tenure.
Numerous reports have suggested that players, staff and management had not been paid in April, before the team's former head coach Damon Ware announced he'd be stepping down from his role because of late payments.
Antonio Brown walked away from the NFL in 2021 before becoming owner of the Albany Empire in March 2023Just a few weeks later, Brown the did not pay the league in May, ahead of their game against the Orlando Predators, with the former NFL star indicating to the league that he had no intention of paying the assessment or any fines that would be given.
That lead to an emergency call featuring the other owners in the league, who all decided to boot the Albany Empires out should they fail to make their payment by Thursday afternoon at 5pm.
It's just the latest entanglement that Brown has found himself in since he quite literally walked away from the NFL in 2021. In the latter years of his career, Brown found himself in numerous legal troubles, and was kicked off the Oakland Raiders, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.