Report: Patriots Failed In Their Contract with Antonio Brown and Bob Kraft Will End Up Paying Him $9M

Antonio Brown is no longer a Patriots, but the team will have to give him $9 million. New England agreed to give the wide receiver a signing bonus, and team owner Robert Kraft will have to pay.

According to sources, the Patriots can’t avoid this payment, and each of these sources have an extensive experience with NFL contracts and the league’s collective-bargaining agreement. Brown will get his money in 2020. The Patriots cut Brown before he caused a signing bonus void. There’s a forthcoming grievance from the wide receiver, and he will eventually win.

“[New England] fighting to keep that signing bonus now is either a gross misunderstanding of [the CBA’s] rules on voiding signing bonuses or it’s just out of spite,” one source said. “I can’t believe they don’t understand the signing bonus voids in the CBA. There’s just no way. This is just spitefulness. They’re fighting [Brown] completely out of the anger and embarrassment in ownership.”

Article 4 and section 9 is everything you need to know about Brown’s grievance.

“(a) Forfeitable Breach. Any player who (i) willfully fails to report, practice or play with the result that the player’s ability to fully participate and contribute to the team is substantially undermined (for example, without limitation, holding out or leaving the squad absent a showing of extreme personal hardship); or (ii) is unavailable to the team due to conduct by him that results in his incarceration; or (iii) is unavailable to the team due to a nonfootball injury that resulted from a material breach of Paragraph 3 of his NFL Player Contract; or (iv) voluntarily retires …”

Brown wouldn’t get his money if he refused to report, practice or play. He wouldn’t be paid if he was unavailable due to a troubled behavior or if he was unavailable due to a non-football injury. Retirement is also an excuse.

However, Brown didn’t do anything of this, and he will sure get his signing bonus. Well, the Patriots may use the fact that Brown didn’t inform them about the lawsuit against him.

“If they had cut [Brown] as soon as they became aware of the civil suit, then there’s the argument of the [withholding] breach undermining the entire agreement,” one source told Yahoo Sports. “But they kept him on the roster after that lawsuit was filed. They played him in a game. They even paid him checks for [two weeks of] work. If the civil suit was a true dealbreaker, the Patriots could have shown it by breaking the deal. Their actions speak to their intent and their intent was shown when they continued to pay him after the civil suit.”

“They did the contract structure, knowing how difficult [the CBA] makes it to withhold or claw back a signing bonus,” another source added. “If they wanted more protection, that was their option when they negotiated the deal. They could have protected themselves by making the deal a series of per-game 53-man roster bonuses. The signing bonus route is an instantly recognized chunk of earned money as soon as he signs. It’s the most player-friendly route you can take.”