During his NFL career, Antonio Brown earned a little over $80 million in pre-tax salary. The vast majority of his earnings were earned during his time with the Pittsburgh Steelers, 2010-2018. Thanks to a 2017 contract extension signed with the Steelers, Antonio was at one point the highest-paid received in NFL history.
Antonio’s career earnings should have been around $30 million higher, but he really screwed up on a contract with the Raiders. In March 2019, Brown was traded to the Oakland Raiders with a restructured 3-year $50 million contract. Had all gone to plan, Antonio should have received a $30 million signing bonus. Almost instantly, Brown clashed with Raiders management. On September 7, 2019, he was cut from the team and lost his $30 million bonus. Later that same day, he signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the Patriots. Two weeks later, he was cut from the Patriots. And with that, Antonio went from potentially earning $30 million for the 2019-2020 season to only earning $158,000 for the whole season.
Based on that example alone, one could argue that maybe Antonio does not make the wisest financial decisions. But to repeat, in total, Antonio did earn $80 million during his time in the NFL. After taxes, commissions and other fees, call it $35 million.
Unfortunately, apparently, that wasn’t enough to last a lifetime. In fact, it only lasted a few years.
Antonio reportedly just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Florida, where he owns a home (one that will be protected from bankruptcy thanks to state law; more on that later). Documents produced in court show he owes almost $3 million to “at least” eight different creditors. In terms of his TOTAL assets, Brown claims to have just around $50,000 to his name.
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Some of the people lining up to get what they are owed from Brown include a truck driver who successfully sued Brown for assault. This truck driver was awarded a $1.2 million judgment after Brown failed to appear in court.
The documents further show at least three additional civil judgments in the six-figure range against Brown. Then there’s another six-figure sum in credit card debt and even a $296 bill apparently owed to a plumber. Then there’s Avanti Solutions, a company that Brown says he owes almost $29,000, and which filed a lawsuit of their own against Brown last year for work surrounding Brown’s appearance at the Rolling Loud festival last year. KCB Marketing is another company that sued Brown for unpaid work, alleging in court they were owed more than $2 million in unpaid commissions from marketing deals they say they secured for Brown. That lawsuit was filed in 2021.
One thing Brown won’t have to worry about as his bankruptcy filing proceeds is losing his house in Florida. Under Florida law, any home on less than half an acre of land that its owner has lived in for more than 1,215 days is protected from bankruptcy, regardless of the home’s actual market value. Brown bought his Florida mansion in 2016 for $6.6 million. Today, the property is worth $9-10 million, all of which is fully protected from the bankruptcy filing and is therefore excluded from his asset disclosure.
So, as long as he manages to make the mortgage payments, even in bankruptcy, with millions in debt and only $50k in assets, Antonio can continue living in his opulent, 18,000-square-foot Florida mansion.