Antonio Brown countersuing Britney Taylor for defamation
Antonio Brown is countersuing Britney Taylor for defamation and interference with his NFL contracts and endorsements, according to documents obtained Wednesday by ESPN. Brown, the subject of an NFL investigation over Taylor's claims of rape and sexual assault, is denying the accusations against him and requesting a jury trial. Taylor had served Brown with a lawsuit in Florida's Broward County Circuit Court on Nov. 1 and gave him 45 days to respond. In that response, Brown said his sexual relationship with Taylor was always consensual and that Taylor attempted to secure a $1.65 million investment from Brown for her gymnastics business shortly after Brown signed a $72 million deal with the
Pittsburgh Steelers, the documents state.
Brown signed a confidentiality agreement with Taylor on March 8 while "under duress," the documents state. Two days later, Brown was traded from the Steelers to the
Oakland Raiders as part of a three-year, $54-million extension. The countersuit claims Taylor's "false accusations" earlier this year affected his business dealings of which she had previous knowledge while spending significant time with him in 2017 and 2018, including working as his trainer for a period of time.
In the original lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Taylor accuses Brown of sexually assaulting her on three occasions in 2017 and 2018. That suit was refiled in Broward County. Prior to that suit's filing, Brown and Taylor had entered into settlement talks, with sources telling ESPN's Jeff Darlington that Brown declined to sign a $2 million-plus agreement. Brown and Taylor knew each other at Central Michigan before Brown entered the NFL draft in 2010, and the documents state the two had cursory communication from then until 2017.