Antonio Brown Accused of Rape in a Lawsuit

The lawsuit says that Taylor told at least three people about these incidents: her mother, Brown’s chef and a member of her church, who advised her to come forward.

“As a rape victim of Antonio Brown, deciding to speak out has been an incredibly difficult decision,” Taylor, 28, said in a statement released by her lawyer. “I have found strength in my faith, my family, and from the accounts of other survivors of sexual assault.”

In the statement, she said she would cooperate with the N.F.L. in an investigation. The league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, has the power to discipline players under a personal conduct policy that does not depend on the outcome of legal proceedings. In 2014, the N.F.L. hired specialists in domestic violence cases to do their own investigations of allegations.

An N.F.L. spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit against Brown, and a spokesman for the Patriots said that the team had not heard about the lawsuit or any related allegations.

According to Taylor’s lawsuit, she and Brown met as Bible study partners at Central Michigan and they stayed in contact after Brown reached the N.F.L., as a sixth-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010.

Brown spent nine years with the Steelers, being named to the Pro Bowl in seven of them, but his time there ended unhappily. He pressed for a trade after the 2018 season and joined the Raiders, who rarely saw him in uniform. Brown sat out most of training camp, because of a foot injury reportedly sustained in a cryogenic chamber, and also because of league safety rules that prevented him from using his preferred helmet model.

The Raiders ultimately fined Brown $54,000 for failing to practice and conduct detrimental to the team, notifying him with a letter that he later posted to his Instagram account — the same place where he asked to be cut after the team used provisions in his contract to void about $30 million of the deal.

Ken Belson contributed reporting.