The troubling antics of former NFL player Antonio Brown have been well-documented. Now comes news of another disturbing encounter involving players from his now-defunct arena football team.
According to ESPN, several players on the Albany Empire (formerly of the National Arena League), which Brown owned, spoke about an encounter with the controversial former NFL player. The conversation allegedly led to Brown asking his assistant to grab his AR (presumably referring to his automatic rifle) as a threat to those players.
The incident occurred after Brown initially became the majority owner of the Empire last year. During the team’s training camp, the players requested that the team make a birthday tribute on social media for a former player, Mo Ruffins, who passed away last year at 38. Ben Nelson, the person responsible for social media posts for the team, initially posted the tribute, but it was quickly deleted. When the players got wind of that, they wanted to know why.
“People were a little frustrated because these guys were close to [Mo],” wide receiver Dwayne Hollis said.
After not getting a response about deleting the post, three players, Hollis, Darius Prince, and an unnamed teammate, approached Brown at a local cigar lounge. Brown had been there with Ryan Larkin, a local sneaker entrepreneur that the team owner brought into the front office.
“We were there to just talk, to give our views about how that’s wrong,” Hollis stated.
As the conversation between the players and Brown got heated, that was when Brown allegedly threatened to get a gun.
“AB looked at Ryan [Larkin] and was like, ‘Hey, man, you still got the AR in the car? Go get it,'” Prince recalled. “Then I was like, I’m not going to allow this dude to walk out of here after you just threatened us. After he said that, things did calm down and we had a conversation. But the fact is that he threatened us by telling his assistant to grab his AR.”
The players have also claimed that Brown still hasn’t paid the salaries of the team employees or players that are owed them.
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