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Receiver Antonio Brown soon may receive a green light to return to the league. In New England, the light will remain red.

Tom Curran of NBC Sports Boston explained on Friday’s PFT Live that the Patriots don’t want to bring Brown back in part because of the failure of Brown and his agent to disclose a looming sexual assault lawsuit before the Patriots signed Brown in September.

“It has more to do with the fact that, when he signed initially with the Patriots, they went through the exercise of, ‘OK, is anything gonna bubble up here? We gonna have an issue with anything?'” Curran said. “And they were told ‘no,’ mainly because Drew Rosenhaus was under the feeling, I think, that they had it under control. The Britney Taylor situation was not going to explode on them, yet it did.”

The Taylor lawsuit was filed on September 10. Brown’s answer and counterclaim suggests that he was aware of potential legal entanglements with Taylor as early as March.

“The Patriots view that as not necessarily disqualifying for Drew Rosenhaus going foward,” Curran said. “He was trying to do what was best, and he thought he had it under control, but he didn’t. And that’s what’s going to possibly happen with Antonio Brown. The Patriots don’t want that grenade to go off in their hand twice.”

Others in the organization may feel differently. The football people have one approach; ownership may feel otherwise. And it’s ownership that ultimately decides this one, even if not re-embracing Brown means he will end up with a team the Patriots may face in the postseason.