Steven Ruiz has gotten his pound of flesh. Now he wants his bag of cash.
Antonio Brown‘s former live-in chef, who blew the whistle on Brown having a fake vaccination card, tells TMZ.com that he plans to sue Brown for $10,000 in unpaid bills.
“The game plan now is to file a lawsuit and take it from there,” Ruiz told TMZ.com. “People provide a service and you’ve got to pay for it. That’s it.”
Brown has a history of allegedly or actually not paying his bills. By not paying Ruiz, Brown opened the door to losing a lot more than $10,000.
“If he had just probably paid me, you know what?” Ruiz told TMZ.com. “He probably would still be getting paid in the NFL right now. He’d probably be playing the games that he could be playing and none of this would have even happened.”
The three-game suspension will cost Brown $161,764 in salary, and $158,823 in per-game roster bonuses, if he had been available to play in any of the next three games. (Brown reportedly was targeting a Week 13 return from his ankle injury. That abruptly changed earlier this week, possibly because the Bucs knew that the suspension was coming.)
The Buccaneers also could be able to pursue more than $350,000 in prorated signing bonus payments, based on the fact that Brown will miss three games due to the suspension over submitting a fake vaccination card.
The suspension also complicates his ability to unlock incentives based on receptions ($333,333 for 50, another $333,333 for 70), yards ($333,333 for 600, another $333,333 for 800), and touchdowns ($333,333 for five, $333,333 for seven). He currently has 29 catches for 418 yards and four touchdowns, in five games.
So, yes, he should have just paid his bill to Ruiz. It also would have been wise to not submit a fake vaccination card.