Antonio Brown only played one game for the New England Patriots, but he will see the guaranteed money both sides agreed to when he signed his contract earlier this month. In a report by NBC Sports Boston, the Patriots will pay Brown his signing bonus which is $9 million. Patriots owner Robert Kraft has said he is not giving Brown his signing bonus money because due to his sexual assault and misconduct allegations. Brown has filed a grievance against Kraft.
Yahoo Sports was the first to report the news of Brown and a source explains why Kraft has to pay him.
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“[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 to Yahoo Sports. “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.”
Brown has not spoken publicly since he was released by the Patriots last week. However, he’s been really active on social media and one of the things he mentioned was making a return to the NFL. Brown went to Twitter to talk about a comeback and he said, “I’m still the best. Why stop now?” Comedian Will Noonan responded to Brown and said, “Bro. Let’s try and play for 4 NFL teams this year.” Brown agreed with him by saying “Big 4X.” Later, Brown tweeted, “The game need me. I’m like test answers.”
We’ll see what happens when it comes to Brown signing with another NFL team this fall. But if that doesn’t happen, at least he’ll likely have $9 million for virtually one week of work.
