A little over two weeks ago, the New England Patriots inexplicably dug themselves a financial hole by agreeing to give Antonio Brown a $9 million signing bonus. Now team owner Robert Kraft must pay his way out of it.
That’s the consensus of five league sources who spoke to Yahoo Sports this week — each familiar with Brown’s now-voided Patriots deal and all having extensive experience with the overlap between NFL contracts and the league’s collective-bargaining agreement. The group universally expressed the belief that New England’s payout to Brown will likely happen deep into the 2020 calendar, after an exhaustive arbitration grievance that could ultimately reveal what Brown and his agents knew about a threatened sexual assault civil lawsuit prior to signing with the Patriots.