Whether it was a star tight end’s murder conviction followed by his suicide in prison, conspiracies to steal plays from opponents and to underinflate footballs to allow quarterback Tom Brady to throw better or Kraft’s entanglement in a sting investigation of a Florida salon, the Patriots have maintained a kind of dual existence as a model franchise for winning and a never-ending soap opera off the field.

Then came the decision to sign Brown.

The text messages, first reported by Sports Illustrated, were sent Wednesday night by a cellphone belonging to Brown, according to Katz. They went to a group of people that included Heitner, Brown’s lawyer, and the woman who has accused Brown of making inappropriate advances. The texts seemed to encourage a third party to research the woman’s history, and they included a photograph of her children.

Brown was instructed by the league and the Patriots to stop communicating with the woman, according to Katz and Banks.

“I can’t connect the dots,” Katz said in an interview, referring to the Patriots’ cutting Brown a day after her client’s complaint had been presented in a letter to the N.F.L. “But the N.F.L. this morning said they immediately contacted the Patriots after we talked last night and told us that neither Antonio Brown nor his associates would be contacting our client anymore.”

The woman, an artist, told Sports Illustrated this week that as she was working on a mural at Brown’s house in 2017, he approached her from behind while naked, holding a hand towel over his genitals. She was later fired, she said.

In the letter sent to the N.F.L. Thursday evening by Katz and Banks, the artist also said Brown had sex with another woman while she was in the same room, working on the mural.

Brown’s tumult has spanned three franchises and included problems large and small — but until now nothing as serious as accusations of rape and other sexual misconduct.