Antonio Brown and his National Arena League team, the Albany Empire, have been kicked out and evicted from the league, the league announced on Thursday.
The team had won back-to-back championships prior to Brown acquiring the majority ownership of the team. He acquired that ownership because the team is the legacy team that his dad played for in Albany. Brown and the team were booted after an inflammatory press conference that he held on Wednesday, calling out players, coaches, fans, and more.
Antonio Brown did not pay the league’s mandated and overdue assessments. He was also fined for his public comments in that press conference but refused to pay the fine. Each month, the team must pay the assessments, and Brown did not pay the May assessment and challenged the April assessment, with the money credited back to him.
As such, the league schedule will now be adjusted and the game against Jacksonville, which Brown would have played in, has seemingly been canceled. It’s the latest in a series of events that have made Brown’s tenure as owner unsuccessful. He has failed to pay players who then left the team, fired coaches consistently, and pulled a bait and switch that he would suit up back in May.
Now, the ultimate issue has reached its apex, and the team has been kicked out of the league. Brown and the team were given until 12 p.m. to pay their leftover assessments, but never did and as such were terminated from the league. He recently commented that he would like to see his team in the Arena Football League proper. However, the Albany Empire now have no league to play in and the rest of their season has, as such, been terminated. Brown bought over 90% of the team when he became majority owner of the club.