Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown plans to accept a plea deal on an attempted murder charge in Miami that avoids prison, as part of an agreement that his lawyer said Wednesday was too good to turn down.
Brown is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 30 to make the deal final. He could have faced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of the charge.
Brown is accused of grabbing a handgun from a security staffer after a celebrity boxing match in Miami on May 16, 2025, and firing two shots at a man he had gotten into a fistfight with earlier, according to an arrest warrant. Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu told investigators that one of the bullets grazed his neck.
“This was not an easy decision,” defense attorney Mark Eiglarsh said in a statement Wednesday. “Antonio believes in his innocence. He believes strongly in his Stand Your Ground defense, and he believes he would ultimately prevail at trial. But when prosecutors put an offer on the table that transforms a potential decades-long prison sentence into a significantly reduced charge and probation, there was simply no way he could reasonably turn it down.”
Florida’s so-called 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.
Richard Cooper, an attorney for Nantambu, called the plea deal fair.
“We are satisfied that justice is served. My client maintains what he said previously: that he forgives Brown and will not cooperate with law enforcement,” Cooper said in an email Wednesday. “We wish Mr. Brown good health and that he grows from this event.”
In a previous statement, his attorneys said Nantambu, a devout Muslim, had made the decision to forgive Brown after “considerable reflection, prayer, and consultation with his family and counsel.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office declined to comment on Wednesday, with spokesperson Ed Griffith saying the details would be “fully clarified” at next week's hearing.
Brown has said on social media that he was defending himself from an attack and that others were trying to steal jewelry from him.
Brown, 38, spent 12 years in the NFL and was an All-Pro wide receiver who last played in 2021 for Tampa Bay, including winning a Super Bowl championship with quarterback Tom Brady. He spent much of his career with Pittsburgh. For his career, Brown had 928 receptions for more than 12,000 yards and accounted for 88 total touchdowns, counting punt returns and one pass.
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 2025.
Brown has dealt with several legal problems over the years. He previously had been accused of battery of a moving truck driver, several domestic violence charges, failure to pay child support and other incidents. During a 2021 game with Tampa Bay against the New York Jets, Brown took off his jersey, shoulder pads and gloves and ran off the field, leading to his release by the Buccaneers and effectively ending his football career.
In a separate case, Nantambu was found guilty earlier this year of a misdemeanor charge of resisting an officer after police said he disrupted Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance in 2025. Nantambu was among dozens of dancers on the field at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans when he ran across the field with a Sudanese flag that read “Sudan and Free Gaza.” He surrendered to authorities after an arrest warrant was obtained.
Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
FILE - Former NFL star wide receiver Antonio Brown walks after being released from the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, Nov. 13, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
