Zul-Qarnain Kwame Nantambu is a 41-year old man from New Orleans. He worked two jobs so he could support himself. He worked in New Orleans as a human rights advocate and speaker. On February 9th, 2025, at the SuperBowl halftime show, he was resisting arrest after holding up a protest flag during the performance. Before this happened, he was in a previous incident that happened in Miami a couple months before.
It all started when he decided to hold up a flag that said “Sudan and Free Gaza” while standing on a car used as a prop. After he did that, he immediately jumped off the car and started running. Even after the police were chasing him, he refused to comply with their commands to stop. After a little while, he decided to surrender to the authorities because he heard there was an arrest warrant obtained on him. The police arrested him and booked him into the Orleans Parish Justice Center on charges of resisting officer arrest and disturbing the peace. He didn’t get arrested until four months after the incident happened. He was found guilty for resisting arrest on May 11th, 2026.
Even through all that happened, he ended up in another incident involving former NFL player Antonio Brown. This incident happened on May 16th, 2025, in Miami, Florida. It took place outside a celebrity boxing event. ESPN reporters said, “ The two got into an altercation when Antonio Brown grabbed a gun from a security guard and pointed it at Nantambu.” Antonio Brown shot it at Nantambu twice but barely missed both times. Nantambu said, “one of the bullets grazed my neck.” This time Nantambu was the victim in a criminal incident.
Although Nantambu almost died, he still got consequences for resisting arrest and protest during the halftime show. He first got fined 500 dollars and is most likely facing jail for at least 6 months. He is getting jail time because of the misdemeanor conviction. His schedule to get his sentence is on June 1st. Lastly, the NFL decided he was banned from all NFL games and events, as well. He was told not to do it beforehand and still did it anyway, so he knew what the outcome was going to be when he held up the flag.
After Antonio Brown talked to the cops, he claimed he used the gun as self-defense. It was all over social media and many people were talking about it. Some people agreed with him that he was right to hold up the flag, while other people didn’t like that he did it and said he should’ve kept the protest and beliefs to himself..
