No kick in the wallet
Wife beater Brown gets Giant check
SPOUSE-BATTERING Giants kicker Josh Brown will collect his weekly $87,000 paycheck despite the fumbling NFL’s belated move to sideline him this Sunday.
As Brown’s coach and team executives struggled to defend him, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell placed the veteran kicker Friday on the commissioner’s exempt list — barely two months after the league handed down a puny one-game domestic violence suspension.
Goodell’s move bars Brown from playing indefinitely. And the league now plans to reopen its investigation, although a Washington State sheriff charged the NFL booted its initial probe of the volatile kicker.
The Giants, already taking heavy criticism for backing Brown despite their awareness of his past domestic abuse, are now feeling pressure to cut ties with the troubled kicker.
But the team gave no indication that Brown’s four-year career with Big Blue was over. His placement on the exempt list comes with guaranteed payment of his full salary and bonuses. Adrian Peterson was placed on the same list in 2014 after he was accused of physically abusing his son. He was reinstated last year.
Brown’s earlier single-game suspension came despite reports in the Daily News of an additional 20-plus alleged violent encounters between the athlete and his wife — including one when she was pregnant. The News called for the Giants to release him from the team.
The league’s base penalty for violating the Personal Conduct Policy — including domestic violence and sexual assault — is a six-game suspension without pay for a first offense. The penalty was beefed up after the NFL bungled its investigation into Ravens running back Ray Rice, who beat his then-fiancée. The new policy drew rave reviews from Giants co-owner John Mara.
“We need to do a better job handling these issues, and I think this is a step in the right direction,” he told Sports Illustrated’s MMQB (Monday Morning Quarterback) at the time. “We want our standards to be higher, we want there to be more education, and we want the penalties to be tougher, because we want to do what we can to put an end to domestic violence and sexual assault.”
Brown missed opening day during his suspension.
The NFL sent Brown a Friday letter announcing their intent to investigate “other incidents of abuse” in addition to the May 22, 2015, physical assault that led to his suspension.
The 37-year-old is currently in the first year of a two-year, $4 million contract. Rookie Giants coach Ben McAdoo was left Friday to defend Brown, who stayed behind as the team traveled to London for a Sunday showdown with the Los Angeles Rams.
“I’m not going to answer that,” McAdoo replied when asked if the team was aware of a violent, drunken incident at the January 2016 Pro Bowl in Hawaii — eight months after the abuse investigated by the league.
The Giants signed Brown to his new contract three months later, even giving him a raise. Mara, whose family has long run a franchise considered the class of the NFL, offered his support to Brown in August. The coach joined the chorus on Friday.
“We’re not going to turn our back on Josh,” McAdoo said.
The NFL, in its letter from Senior Vice President of Labor Policy & League Affairs Adolpho Birch, insisted the league had made “multiple requests” of the King County (Wash.) sheriff’s office in its probe of Brown.
Sheriff John Urquhart, in a radio interview, responded that one NFL representative was a “yokel” who never revealed his ties to the $9 billion a year industry.
Investigators, without releasing their case file, “probably would have told (the NFL) orally a little bit more about what we had,” said Urquhart. “This is a hot-button item in the NFL.”
Brown can appeal Goodell’s decision, which bars him from attending Giants practices and games. He can attend team meetings and workouts.
The NFL Player Association complained about Goodell’s unquestioned power to sideline Brown.
“The league office wanted unilateral control of this process and accordingly, their system lacks transparency,” a union statement read.