NFL teams are interested in free-agent recipient Antonio Brown after his release from the Patriots on Friday.
Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told Schefter that he had “talked to a few teams who are interested” about the broad receiver and received “information about his legal situation and the investigation of the NFL”.
In addition, league sources told Shefter they “believe that a deal for the free-agent WR is unlikely to come off before the NFL’s investigation is completed.”
The Patriots released Brown less than two weeks after his signature. He prepared for a singles match with New England in Week 2, where he scored four passes for 56 yards and a touchdown against Miami.
Brown’s release followed the announcement of an NFL investigation into alleged harassment and intimidation, Robert Klemko of the MMQB said Friday. The Patriots and NFL spoke with Brown and advised him not to turn to his prosecutor, an artist he hired to paint a mural in his Pennsylvania home after learning of the alleged molestation Klemko.
Klemko said on Thursday that Brown had allegedly sent “intimidating” text messages to the woman who had made an “undesirable sexual assault” against her in 2017. The woman’s claim was originally reported in Klemko’s Monday-published story, which revealed Brown’s story of disturbing behavior. The screenshots of the texts allegedly include Brown sending a picture of the prosecutor’s children, as well as instructions to employees to “look up their history”.
“Our client … is understandably afraid of these text messages, which are clearly intended to threaten and intimidate them,” prosecutor’s attorney Lisa J. Banks said in a letter to the NFL. “Although she undoubtedly qualifies as a ‘starving artist’, she has never turned to Mr. Brown to seek money to compensate her for his sexual misconduct, contrary to his claims in the text messages.”
Rosenhaus responded to Brown’s release on Friday on Twitter.
“It is unfortunate that the Patriots did not work out, but Antonio is well and looking forward to his next chance in the NFL,” Rosenhaus said. “He wants to play the game he loves, and he hopes to play for another team soon.”
The four-time All-Pro was also charged with rape on 10 September by former coach Britney Taylor. Taylor accused Brown of three cases of sexual misconduct and culminated in a presumptive rape in May 2018.