The head coach of the Albany Empire said members of the arena football team are planning a class-action lawsuit against owner Antonio Brown after all the players and coaches discovered the paychecks from their final game were pulled from their bank accounts.
“I’m frustrated,” Empire head coach Moe Leggett said. “I’m frustrated. I tried to give (Brown) the benefit of the doubt. I tried to work with him. I was trying to be the peacemaker, the mediator to make sure things ran smoothly and just under the radar. But I can no longer do that.”
The news of the pulled paychecks was first reported by WTEN (Ch. 10).
Leggett said team members were paid last Thursday and Friday for the Orlando game. But a member of their group chat on Wednesday night posted a screenshot of the bank account reversal. When Leggett checked his account the next morning, his paycheck also had been deducted.
Leggett says players are still owed amounts of $500 and up for their final game. Leggett said he tried to reach Brown, the former NFL All-Pro wide receiver, his accountant Alex Gunaris and team president Alberony Denis without success.
Efforts by the Times Union to reach Brown, Gunaris and Denis were unsuccessful.
Leggett said he’s looking for a lawyer to file a lawsuit against Brown and the trust of which Brown is a representative.
Empire wide receiver Fabian Guerra quickly found another playing job after the Empire ended. He’s playing for the Massachusetts Pirates, an Indoor Football League team in Worcester, Mass. He said he would join a lawsuit against Brown.
“I’m thinking since he didn’t pay us, it’s only the right thing to do,” Guerra said. “It’s kind of like bad business by him, but I’m over here in Massachusetts and playing with a new team, so I’m not worried. It sucks it has to come down to that and now there’s…
Read the full article here