The Albany Empire of the National Arena League are adding NFL All-Pro wide receiver Antonio Brown to its ownership group, according to team sources.
Brown’s father, Eddie, will also be involved. Eddie Brown was a star offensive specialist for the Albany Firebirds of the Arena Football League in the 1990s.
The Empire are set to announce the deal, which has yet to be signed, at a press conference Thursday morning. WNYT (Ch. 13) first reported the news.
“Albany, New York. I’m here,” Antonio Brown, standing on a balcony, said in a video posted Wednesday evening on his Twitter account. “It’s a big announcement in the morning. Stay tuned.”
Antonio Brown will not play for the Empire. Brown, 34, caught 928 passes for 12,291 yards and 83 touchdowns over 12 NFL seasons with the Steelers, Patriots and Buccaneers. He won a Super Bowl ring with Tampa Bay in the 2020 season.
Brown hasn’t played in the NFL since Jan. 2, 2022, when he pulled off his jersey and left the field before the end of Tampa Bay’s game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. The Buccaneers released Brown, who did not play in the NFL this past season.
Despite his Hall of Fame credentials, Brown’s later career has been marred by controversy, including an eight-game suspension in 2020 for multiple violations of the NFL’s personal conduct policy. He pleased no contest to burglary and battery charges in Florida and was accused of sending intimidating texts to a woman who accused him of unwanted advances.
Antonio Brown’s returning is something of a homecoming. He attended second grade at Blue Creek Elementary School in Latham in 1996 while his father was playing for the Firebirds.
“He used to come to practice and do flips on the field,” Eddie Brown recalled in February 2011 before Antonio Brown and the Steelers lost the Super Bowl to the Green Bay…
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