Antonio Brown reportedly rejected $2 million settlement offer in lawsuit, accuser will meet with NFL on Monday

Britney Taylor was apparently willing to settle her lawsuit for a multi-million dollar payout, but Brown rejected it

Antonio Brown had a chance to settle his sexual assault lawsuit before the case was filed in a Florida court this week, but apparently, he decided to turn down the settlement offer that was made by the representatives of his accuser, Britney Taylor. 

According to ESPN.com, Taylor's camp gave Brown the chance to sign a $2 million-plus settlement agreement that would have kept the lawsuit from being filed. Brown had until 10 p.m. on Sept. 8 to sign the agreement, and when that didn't happen, Taylor's camp filed the lawsuit less than 48 hours later. 

In the lawsuit, Brown is accused of sexually assaulting Taylor on three separate occasions between June 2017 and May 2018. Although Brown's legal team has admitted that the two had a sexual relationship, his camp maintains that everything was consensual between Brown and Taylor. 

According to ESPN.com, settlement talks between Brown and Taylor started in April and included two mediation hearings. The settlement talks were confidential, which is why the Patriots didn't know anything about the lawsuit even though it was filed less than 24 hours after Brown officially signed his contract with the team. 

According to NFL.com, the Patriots wouldn't have signed Brown if they had known about the lawsuit beforehand. Despite that, the team is still allowing Brown to play this week against the Dolphins.

The allegations in the lawsuit are now being investigated by the NFL and it's expected that the investigation is going to quickly move forward. According to NFL.com, Taylor is expected to meet with the league on Monday to discuss the case. One twist to the investigation is that it's possible that Taylor and Brown won't be the only witnesses interviewed. 

In the lawsuit, an unidentified second NFL player was named as a potential witness, and although it's still unknown who that is, NFL.com has reported that the player is a rookie. According to the lawsuit, the rookie player was at Brown's Florida residence during one of the alleged sexual assaults.  

Although the NFL has opened an investigation into the case, the league is letting Brown play this week because he's not facing any criminal charges. If the NFL were to find that the lawsuit has merit, Brown could potentially be placed on the commissioner's exempt list at some point down the road, which would basically put him on paid leave until the end of the investigation.