What is Antonio Brown's net worth and salary?
Antonio Brown is an American professional football player who has a net worth of -$3 million. As we detail in the next section below, Antonio filed for bankruptcy in Florida in May 2024. In his filing he claimed to have just $50,000 in assets and $3 million in debt. But there is a caveat. The state of Florida exempts a bankruptcy filer's primary home as long as the home. Antonio's primary home is a mansion in Fort Lauderdale, which was purchased in 2016 for $6.6 million and is worth $9 million today.
During his career, Antonio Brown received $80 million worth of NFL contracts, though that number includes some money that he did not end up earning due to some controversies and personal conduct fines that we'll detail later in this article. For example, in the 2019-2020 season, Antonio should have earned $30 million guaranteed. He ultimately earned just $138,000 that season. He earned $69 million playing for the Steelers alone between 2010 and 2018.
Brown's professional career began when he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the sixth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. Over the course of his tenure with the Steelers, he developed into one of the league's premier wide receivers, earning seven Pro Bowl selections and leading the league in receiving yards in 2014 and 2017. Despite his successes on the field, Brown's time with the Steelers ended in controversy. Disagreements with teammates and management led to him requesting a trade. He was eventually traded to the Oakland Raiders in 2019 but never played a regular-season game for them due to a series of off-field issues, including confrontations with team management. After a short stint with the Raiders, Brown signed with the New England Patriots, playing in only one game before being released amid allegations of personal misconduct. His career seemed in jeopardy, but he managed to return to professional football in 2020, signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Playing alongside Tom Brady, he contributed to the Buccaneers' Super Bowl LV victory, marking a significant comeback in his career. In week 17 of the following season, Antonio infamously removed his shirt and walked off the field mid-game. He was fired from the organization and has not played professionally since.
2024 Bankruptcy Filing
On May 23, 2024, Antonio Brown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. According to his bankruptcy documents, Antonio owes $3 million to eight creditors. On of his biggest single debts is a $1.2 million judgment owed to a truck driver who was reportedly assaulted by Brown. Brown failed to appear in court in that case and the truck driver was awarded the judgment by default. He owes hundreds of thousands of dollars to various credit cards and individuals, including a $296 debt to a plumber. In terms of his assets, the filing claimed that as of May 2024, Antonio Brown had less than $50,000 in assets.
In the filing, Antonio listed his 180,000-square-foot Fort Lauderdale mansion as his address. Antonio bought the home in 2016 for $6.6 million. It's worth around $9 million today. As a homestead state, Antonio's primary home is fully protected from the bankruptcy filing. According to Florida's homestead law, if the house is located within a municipality, as long as the property is on less than half an acre and the owner has lived their for more than 1,215 days, it is fully protected in bankruptcy, regardless of the value. In other words, Antonio's $3 million worth of creditors will not be able to touch his $9 million mansion. He can continue living there as long as he continues paying the mortgage.
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Career Earnings
Antonio Brown's total NFL career earnings are around $80.5 million. His first contract with the Steelers paid $1.288 over three years. He earned $393,000 in his rookie year, followed by $450,000 in his sophomore year. In 2012, heading into his third NFL year, Antonio signed a 5-years $42 million extension with the Steelers that upped his earnings for the year to $9 million. He ultimately earned $69 million playing nine seasons for the Steelers.
At two points in his career, first in 2017 and then again in 2019, Antonio was the highest-paid receiver in the NFL.
Antonio then earned $5.4 million over two seasons with the New England Patriots, followed by $860,000 playing one season with the Raiders, and finally $4.5 million playing two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
His career earnings easily should have topped $100 million without his various controversies.
Child Support Issues
In April 2023, a judge ordered law enforcement in Florida to arrest Brown after he failed to make a $30,000 child support payment to an ex-girlfriend named Wiltrice Jackson. He ultimately made the payment before being arrested. In August 2023, a judge issued the same order once again, this time over an apparent $15,000 missed payment.
$1 Million Jewelry Debt
In February 2024, an eccentric celebrity "jewelry guy" known as Shuki, who specializes in extremely expensive custom pieces for the rich and famous, won a lawsuit against Antonio. Brown failed to respond to the suit. Brown was ordered to pay over $1 million to Shuki over multiple pieces the jeweler says Brown borrowed and never returned or paid for.
Shuki filed suit against Brown in April of 2023, claiming that in 2022 he had lent Brown several pieces, including a pair of signature diamond fingers that cost $500,000 each, on the understanding that Brown would either return or decide to buy them after a reasonable period. That period lapsed, Shuki found himself unable to reach Brown, and the lawsuit was filed. Altogether, Shuki tabulated the value of the lent pieces to $1,095,000, and he sued to get that amount from Brown, a suit that Brown failed to respond to in any way. That leads to the present default judgment, and Brown on the hook for the $1.095 million worth of jewelry — although presumably Shuki would be satisfied to just have the items back at long last.
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Florida Mansion & Other Real Estate
In 2014, Antonio paid $1.91 million for a home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Gibsonia. He sold this home in 2021 $1.4 million. In 2019, during his brief time playing for the Oakland Raiders, Antonio paid $3.223 million for a newly-built home in the Bay Area suburb of Alamo, California. He sold this home in February 2020 for $3 million.
In recent years, Antonio has made Florida his primary residence. In March 2016, Antonio paid $6.6 million for a lavish mansion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The 18,000-square-foot home has 12 bedrooms and 14 bathrooms. Today, the home is worth $9-10 million.
Early Life
Antonio Brown was born in Miami, Florida, in July 1988. He is a wide receiver and punt returner who played at Miami Norland High School. Brown played his college football at Central Michigan, where he was a two-time First-team All-American and a two-time MAC Special Teams Player of the Year.
NFL Career
Brown was drafted #195 by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2010 NFL Draft and has played his entire career for the Steelers. During his NFL career, he won an AFC Championship in 2010 and is a four-time Pro Bowl selection and two-time First-team All-Pro. Brown was named the AFC Offensive Co-Player of the Year and was the NFL Receiving Yards Leader in 2014.
He was the NFL Receptions Leader in 2014 and 2015 and the AFC Receiving Touchdowns Leader in 2014. Brown is the first NFL player to have 1,000 yards returning and receiving in a season, as well as the first NFL player to have at least five catches and 50 receiving yards in 35 consecutive games. He is also the first NFL player with back to back seasons with at least 125 receptions. He is also one of two players with Calvin Johnson to have at least 5,000 receiving yards in three years.
Antonio played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2010 to 2018.
He briefly was a member of the Oakland Raiders in 2019. His time with the Raiders ended before the season started and after he had received $215,000 worth of fines related to altercations with the team's general manager.
On the day he was released from the Raiders, September 9, he signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots. He practiced with the Patriots and planned to play in Week 2 of the NFL. On September 20, Antonio was cut from the Patriots in the wake of sexual assault allegations.
In the 2020 offseason Antonio indicated he might retire from the NFL. He was ultimately suspended for the first eight weeks of the 2020 NFL season due to violations of the league's personal conduct policy.
In October 2020, Antonio signed a one-year contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His former New England teammate Tom Brady, who had recently moved to the Bucs, was apparently instrumental in offering Antonio the opportunity. Tampa's coach, Bruce Arians, also formerly coached Antonio in Pittsburgh. The Bucs went on to win the Super Bowl on February 7, 2021.
In week 17 of the 2021 season, Antonio removed his jersey, shoulder pads, and shirt and proceeded to run off the field in the middle of the third quarter. He was subsequently released from the team. Brown announced his retirement from professional football in March 2023. In April 2023, he unretired.
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Contracts and Controversy
After being drafted in June 2010, Antonio and the Steelers agreed to a 3-year, $1.288 million contract. In July 2012, they agreed on a 5-year $42.5 million extension.
In February 2017, Antonio Brown signed a four-year $68 million extension with the Steelers that paid him $17 million per year on average. That was enough to make him the highest-paid wide receiver in the history of the NFL until one year later when Odell Beckham Jr. signed a deal that paid him $19 million starting in 2018. Two years into this deal, in March 2019, he 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.
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In August and September 2019, Antonio had several verbal altercations with the management of his new team, the Oakland Raiders. On September 7, The Raiders announced they were cutting Brown and were planning to rescind his $30 million signing bonus. Later that very same day, Antonio announced that he had signed a 1-year $15 million deal with the Patriots, none of which was guaranteed. So, if he got hurt after one play, he would have ended up making an enormous mistake. Was this the plan all along? Was this some roundabout way for Antonio to get off a low-prospect team and on to what might be Tom Brady's last year in the NFL? Time will tell.
Time did tell. On September 20, 2019, two weeks after basically flushing a guaranteed $30 million down the toilet, Antonio was released from the Patriots amid an ongoing sexual assault controversy. The first $5 million installment in his $9 million Patriots signing bonus was due Sept 23. The second installment of $4 million was due on January 15. He was supposed to earn a $1 million base salary and $500,000 game roster bonuses, both of which he almost certainly forfeited. As for the signing bonuses, his contract stated the bonus could be rescinded if Antionio "takes any action that materially undermines the public's respect for, or is materially critical of, the Club's ownership and coaches. Unclear as of this writing if his release on sexual assault charges will render the $9 million null and void. If he does not receive the $9 million signing bonus, Antonio will have gone from $30 million guaranteed to $9 million guaranteed to just $158,333 in total earnings for the 2019 season.
When Antonio joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in October 2020, he signed a one-year deal that paid a base salary of $1 million and had $1.5 million worth of performance-based bonus incentives.
In April 2021, Antonio signed another one-year deal with the Bucs. This deal, which could have been worth a total of $6.5 million with benchmarks and milestone bonuses, included a $2 million signing bonus, $916,000 in base salary, and $3.1 million in guaranteed money. Antonio forfeited an estimated $1 million worth of bonuses when he stormed off the field in January 2022.
In October 2022, it was reported that Brown exposed himself to and became physical with a woman at the Armani Hotel in Dubai. In December 2022, he was issued an arrest warrant by Tampa police on domestic violence charges for throwing a shoe at his ex-fiancée. Brown had his Snapchat account suspended in January 2023 after posting an explicit photo of a woman performing oral sex on him. And in April 2023, an arrest warrant was served on Brown for failing to make child support payments. His attorney claimed over $30,000 was paid up and that the matter was now closed.
Personal Life
Antonio Brown has six children in total: four sons and two daughters. In 2007, he welcomed his first child, a son, with girlfriend Shameika Brailsford. In March 2008, he welcomed a daughter with girlfriend, Wiltrice Jackson. Antonio has four children, three sons and a daughter, with Chelsie Kyriss.
Since February 2022, Antonio Brown has been the president of Kanye West's sports fashion line of the Donda Sports creative content company.
In March 2023, Brown joined the ownership group of the National Arena League's Albany Empire indoor football team.
