Antonio Brown and the New England Patriots are headed to court.
The NFL Players Association officially has filed a grievance on behalf of the former New England wide receiver, NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported Sunday morning. Brown is seeking more than $40 million in unpaid salary and signing bonuses from the Patriots and Oakland Raiders, both of whom released him last month.
From Rapoport:
“Brown’s grievance includes a challenge of the Raiders’ discipline, which resulted in roughly $215,000 in fines. He’s seeking a week of salary when he requested to be released from Oakland — $860,294. He’s looking for payment of the guarantees for 2019 and 2020 — $29 million — plus his signing bonus of $1 million, which was divided into two workout bonuses.
“From the Patriots, Brown filed to receive his unpaid Week 1 salary of $64,062 and the rest of the $1.025 million total that was his guaranteed base salary. He’s seeking the $9 million signing bonus that was never paid, too, sources say. Brown also filed for breach of contract.”
Brown was accused of sexual assault and rape in a civil lawsuit filed one day after he officially signed with the Patriots. The team chose to play him that Sunday — he caught four passes and a touchdown in a blowout win over the Miami Dolphins — before cutting him late the following week after he sent intimidating text messages to a separate accuser.
After his release, Brown ripped Patriots owner Robert Kraft in tweets he later deleted.
The decision to play Brown against Miami could prove costly for the Patriots. Multiple sources told Yahoo! Sports Charles Robinson last week that doing so likely will prevent the team from using the allegations against the wideout — of which New England claimed it was not aware before his signing — as a reason for voiding his $9 million signing bonus.
The Patriots will visit the Washington Redskins on Sunday.
