The football week that was featured yet another fascinating tale regarding former NFL receiver Antonio Brown. By the time the week ended, the tale became even more fascinating.
Brown has said he owns the Albany Empire, an indoor football team. In the aftermath of reports of dysfunction within the franchise, he now says he doesn’t.
Abigail Rubel of the Albany Times-Union has the story.
Documents provided by Brown’s representatives indicate that the team is owned by “Antonio El-Allah Express Trust Enterprise,” whatever that is, and that Brown has no personal ownership or control of the football team.
A letter also was sent to Rubel with this declaration: “I Brown, Antonio Tavaris a foreign national but not a citizen of the United States at birth, am writing to you regarding recent reports that have been circulating in the media regarding my supposed ownership of the Albany Empire team. I want to make it very clear that I am not the owner of this team, and any claims to the contrary are completely false.”
So Brown claims he is a foreign national who wasn’t born in the United States, even though by all accounts he was.
It feels like a clumsy effort to create a shell entity that owns the team — and that also has responsibility for its liabilities. That approach, if it works and if that’s indeed what’s going on, would ostensibly allow Brown to wash his hands of any expenses or claims against his own assets.
Perhaps the best news from all of this is that, if Brown insists he’s a foreign national, he can never run for president. Given his adventures of the past few years, that outcome would otherwise have a spot somewhere on the A.B. bingo card.