Justin Edmonds/Getty Images
More than 3.7 million people follow the Patriots’ Antonio Brown on Instagram, and a fair chunk of them do, presumably, not just because he is one of the best receivers playing the country’s most popular sport.
Brown, 31, is now ensnared in a maelstrom, with the attention that he draws as an athlete spotlighting a federal lawsuit that accuses him of sexual assault and rape, while also bringing more scrutiny to the N.F.L.’s handling of reports of violence against women.
A woman who had worked as Brown’s trainer is the plaintiff in the lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday.