Being a free agent affords an NFL player more time with his family. That has presented problems for Antonio Cromartie.
The four-time Pro Bowler is still awaiting word from potential employers in training camps, and in his free time he’s had to make some difficult decisions about how he spends his money.
The nine-year pro cornerback is evicting his mother from the Florida house he bought her in 2007, according to TMZ, and the two sides share different stories concerning who’s been paying and responsible for the home.
Cromartie’s sister told the gossip website the NFL star has bankrolled the house for years, until he asked his mom to pay the $700-per-month mortgage bill in February. The mother refused — saying the house was a gift from an athlete whom Spotrac lists as having made $44 million in his career — and she was set to be booted from the house Monday.
According to a Cromartie rep, though, “His mother has been paying the mortgage on the house since 2011. That’s the deal they have in place.
“It wasn’t until June that she refused to make any payments.”
The ensuing public fallout over the family issues has brought Cromartie’s outspoken wife into the mix — and she’s hinting there’s much more than a money squabble at work.
Terricka Cromartie, in social media messages that since have been deleted, suggested her mother-in-law has never liked her, and might be the psychological root of Antonio’s well-documented history of fathering children.
“You can dislike me his wife as much as you want but look at what you are doing to your child,” Terricka wrote, according to TMZ. “This is why my husband prolly fathered so many kids because the lack of love from you.”
Terricka reinforced Antonio’s claim that his mother can afford to pay for the house.
“Money really is the root of all evil,” she wrote. “My Job is to make sure all our children have a future, all 13 of them.”
The 32-year-old Cromartie became a father to children Nos. 11 and 12, The Post reported, when Terricka gave birth in May to twins, conceived after he had a vasectomy. They were babies three and four for the couple; Cromartie reportedly fathered the rest with seven other women.