MIAMI (AP) — Former NFL star Antonio Brown pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated assault with a firearm in connection with a 2025 shooting outside a celebrity boxing match in Miami.
Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez sentenced Brown to three years of probation, during which time he will have to attend weekly counseling sessions and not possess a firearm, among other conditions.
Wearing a black leather jacket and white pants, he spoke sparingly and in a low voice during the brief proceedings in Miami state court. As he entered his guilty plea, the judge asked him to speak up.
Outside the courtroom, Brown thanked God and said he wanted to "get back to life" and his family.
He declined to answer other questions, but his lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said they were "extremely grateful" the case was behind them.
"My client was facing 30 years in prison with a 20-year minimum mandatory, and he was given an offer he just couldn’t refuse,” he said. “Probation was too good to turn down, and we’re both very excited about the outcome."
The plea to the reduced charge allows the All-Pro wide receiver to avoid prison time and a criminal conviction.
Brown had initially been charged with attempted murder after police say he grabbed a handgun from a security staffer at the event and fired two shots at a man he had been in a fistfight with earlier.
Brown, 38, maintained he was defending himself from an attack as others were trying to steal jewelry from him.
Florida’s Stand Your Ground law allows people who believe they face death or serious injury to use deadly force to defend themselves without a duty to retreat.
Prosecutor Howard Rosen said in court Friday that his office was seeking to reduce the charge against Brown because there was "a question" of whether he was actually attempting to shoot the victim, who had been walking away from the altercation at the time.
He noted the victim, who was grazed in the neck, was in court for the hearing and has said publicly that he wouldn’t cooperate with police and didn’t want to press charges.
"Rather than the entire case going away and there being no opportunity for Mr. Brown to receive what’s ultimately going to be some therapeutic treatment, we all came together — the defense and the state — and decided that this was in the best interest of everybody," Rosen said.
The victim, Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, has said previously that he’s since forgiven Brown.
"We are grateful to the Court for ratifying this carefully crafted agreement," Richard Cooper, his lawyer, said in a statement. “We have maintained that we wish Mr. Brown healing and a path closer to God.”
Brown spent 12 years in the NFL, most of it with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He won a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021 under quarterback Tom Brady.
The following season, though, Brown effectively ended his career when he inexplicably took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field during a game. The Buccaneers released him after the incident.
Brown has dealt with other legal problems in recent years.
He previously was accused of battery on a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents.
Brown was extradited in November 2025 from Dubai, where he has business interests, after an arrest warrant on the attempted murder charge was issued in June of the same year.
___
Marcelo reported from New York.
