Antonio Brown’s personal chef has accused the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver of obtaining a fake COVID-19 vaccination card.
The Tampa Bay Times reported the news. The paper said Brown and Steven Ruiz have had a falling out over $10,000 the wideout owes the chef.
Brown’s girlfriend, model Cydney Moreau, told Los Angeles chef Steven Ruiz in a text message July 2 that Brown was willing to pay $500 if he could get a Johnson & Johnson vaccination card.
“Can you get the COVID cards?” Moreau texted Ruiz on July 2, according to a screen grab he provided to the Tampa Bay Times.
“I can try,” Ruiz responded.
“JNJ shot. Ab said he would give you $500,” Moreau texted.
When reached by the Times, however, Moreau said she did not know Ruiz. “No, I don’t know him. I don’t want to be part of any story.”
Ruiz said he was unable to acquire a fake card for Brown, according to the report, but that the wide receiver a few weeks later showed him ones he had for himself and Moreau that he said he had purchased.
Ruiz had not gone public with the information as he had hoped to resolve the debt collection through attorneys. Those failed and led to him speaking with the Tampa Bay Times.
The football team responded to the story with a statement saying they had “received completed vaccination cards from all Tampa Bay Buccaneers players.
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) November 18, 2021
Brown’s lawyer, Sean Burstyn, denied Ruiz’s claims in a statement to the Times.
“Antonio Brown appreciates the severity of the pandemic, which is why he got the vaccine and supports everyone for whom it is advisable to get the vaccine,” Burstyn texted the newspaper. “Coronavirus has hit close to home as it took him out of a game. He is healthy, vaccinated, and ready to win another Super Bowl.”
