Antonio Brown’s Arena Football Team Expelled From League

Antonio Brown’s tenure as a majority owner in the National Arena League with the Albany Empire has come to an end.

The league announced Thursday in a statement that it is severing the franchise’s membership because it failed to pay its “league and overdue assessments.” Per NAL rules, each team is required to pay one-seventh of the league’s operating budget, a process that began in April. 

Thursday’s news comes a day after the former NFL star told reporters that it would be the Empire’s last season playing in the NAL and that the team was planning to join the Arena Football League, which plans to relaunch in 2024 after filing for bankruptcy in 2019. Since Brown joined the team’s ownership in March, reports surfaced that multiple players and team staff members were not paid and several players were released. Even more, the Empire (1–6) have also employed four different coaches throughout the season.

In its release, the NAL said it also fined Brown $1,000 for conduct detrimental to the league following his string of recent comments, but that Brown refused to pay the fine. 

Moments after the announcement came down, Brown appeared to respond to the news on Twitter, writing, “Major league not minors.”

While addressing the team’s future plans to play in a new league on Wednesday, the 34-year-old shared his candid comments about the team and attempted to draw a difference between “AB,” the team owner whom he credits restoring the Albany football franchise, and “Antonio Brown,” the person who was slated to play in the franchise’s game on Saturday against the Jacksonville Sharks.

“I don’t want to talk about the minutiae of what’s behind us, or what fans should believe,” Brown said, per Griffin Haas of WTEN-TV in Albany, New York. “You guys wouldn’t have football if it wasn’t for ‘AB.’ … Antonio Brown’s here at practice, he’s taking all the proper procedures to play. As you could see today, I wasn’t in the best shape. But I’m still that playmaker. And I can tell the fans one thing: whatever I say, we gonna do. And whatever the people write, it’s not because they hate me; it’s ’cause they actually love me. I’d never tell my fans somethin’ that’s not gonna happen.”

Brown had previously stated he would play in the Empire’s game on May 27 against the Fayetteville Mustangs. However, he did not suit up because his paperwork regarding his physical exam was not approved in time. Saturday’s clash would have been his first with the team and his first time playing in a football game since the on-field debacle that ended his time with the Buccaneers, in which he left the team in the middle of a game at the Jets.

Now, per the Times Union, the league will modify the remaining portion of the 2023 regular season schedule and provide a revised schedule at a later date. After winning its season opener against the Orlando Predators, the Empire lost their last six games.

Prior to this season, Albany has won back-to-back NAL titles and the AFL title in 2019.