Antonio Brown: Ex-NFL wide receiver avoids prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm

Former NFL wide receiver Antonio Brown has avoided jail time after pleading guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm in connection with a 2025 shooting outside a celebrity boxing match Miami.

Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez sentenced the 38-year-old to three years of probation, during which time he will have to attend weekly counselling sessions and not possess a firearm, among other conditions.

Speaking outside the court, Brown said he wanted to "get back to life" and his family.

His lawyer, Mark Eiglarsh, said: "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. Probation was too good to turn down, and we're both very excited about the outcome."

The plea to the reduced charge means the All-Pro wide receiver - who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2010-2018 before spells with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won the Super Bowl in 2021, and the New England Patriots - has avoided a criminal conviction.

He had had initially been charged with attempted murder after police say he grabbed a handgun from a member of security at the boxing event and fired two shots at a man he had been in a fistfight with earlier.

Brown insisted he was defending himself from an attack as others were trying to steal jewellery 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 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 Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu, who was grazed in the neck, was in court for the hearing and has said publicly that he did not want to press charges.

Rosen said: "Rather than the entire case going away and there being no opportunity for Mr Brown to receive what's ultimately going to be therapeutic treatment, we all came together - the defense and the state - and decided this was in the best interest of everybody."

The victim's lawyer, Richard Cooper, said in a statement: "We are grateful to the court for ratifying this carefully crafted agreement. We have maintained we wish Mr Brown healing."

(c) Sky Sports 2026: Antonio Brown: Ex-NFL wide receiver avoids prison after pleading guilty to aggravated assault with a firearm