Every week, Antonio Brown provides the football world with a smoke signal update that reminds us that he’s an agent of chaos. That smoke signal is usually indicative of a fire. Since March, Brown has been running a semi-professional football team in Albany New York like it was George Bluth Sr.’s Original Frozen Banana Stand. The former receiver and sports agency executive who oversaw the demise of the Donda Sports brand recently became co-owner of the National Arena League’s Albany Empire and has been an unstable influence on the franchise almost immediately.
Damon Ware, who has since resigned as Empire head coach, told TMZ that Brown’s ownership was “doomed from the start” and described it as a “hostile takeover” where the former NFL star forced the other owners out by “throwing money their way.”
On Monday, The Albany Times-Union reported that coaches and players have gone unpaid since April 21. As a consequence, Ware announced his resignation amidst the missed payments. He also claims that convos with AB about resolving the payment issue got out of hand, leading to AB texting him violent threats.
Empire players were supposed to receive payment every Friday following each team’s game. According to CBS6 anchor Chet Davis in Albany, food vouchers were also not delivered this week.
Never has the mantra about lying with dogs giving you fleas been more accurate. It should have been expected that the president of a defunct agency would be transmitting his instability from the owner’s suite. Prior to buying the team, the Empire were the reigning two-time champions of the NAL.
However, soon after Brown was hired, head coach Tom Menas was inexplicably ousted from his position. Even after getting stiffed on the 28th, the Empire still played Sunday against the Carolina Cobras and fell to 1-2.
Ex-QB Sam Castronova told TMZ that several of the captains confronted team officials on the bus ride home from Carolina about not getting their checks. Additionally following the loss, Albany police responded to the team’s hotel after an incident on the team bus at approximately 9:40 a.m. Monday morning.
As a result wide receiver Darius Prince, last season’s NAL Most Valuable Player, Castronova, linemen Brandon Sesay, and Melvin Hollins, defensive back Dwayne Hollis, and linebacker Nick Haag didn’t get room keys for the team hotel. The staff told them it was Brown’s doing, TMZ reported. They also had to “fight like hell” to get their belongings, according to the gossip site.
AB is recruiting players via Twitter
As of today, the Empire are looking for their third head coach and Brown is recruiting new players on Twitter.
The Empire’s acting president, Alberony Denis blamed the payment delays on the payroll processor, which put a hold due to Mike Kwarta and a majority of the front office’s departure following the sale of 95 percent of the team to Brown and his father Eddie.
Competent management who passed Econ 101 should have foreseen complications and been ready to troubleshoot before this became a dangling embarrassment over the organization’s heads. There’s a slim chance this is an innocent clerical error, but given Brown’s alleged history of stiffing employees and contractors, it wouldn’t be surprising if this were the result of pure neglect or something more nefarious.
His business conflicts have been eclipsed by his wild antics or the allegations levied against him, but he’s left unpaid with personal chefs production managers, and even physicians in his wake over the last decade-plus. Wherever Brown seems to go chaos and unpaid bills seem to follow. How he was even admitted into the league as an owner is bewildering, but it’s too late to stuff that genie back into the bottle. According to Denis, the team has paid the processor, but Brown is the force at the top of the hierarchy that should make everyone shudder.
“It’s a happy day for me to be out of this crazy situation,” Ware told TMZ.
Follow DJ Dunson on Twitter: @cerebralsportex