One Giant failure
Two years after having supposedly learned hard lessons about going easy on domestic violence, the National Football League has another massive moral mess on its hands. Blame the NFL front office and your New York Giants for an egregious failure of accountability against a confessed serial domestic abuser, one that leaves a fresh black mark on the sport.
This August, the Daily News revealed that Giants kicker Josh Brown’s opening-game suspension by the NFL was for a May 2015 arrest on a domestic violence allegation against his then-wife.
Molly Brown had told cops on the day of the arrest that her husband had been violent with her 20 times — including when she was pregnant. The arrest had followed multiple 911 calls.
No charges were filed and the league claimed there was insufficient evidence to mete out stiffer punishment.
That was despite an incident at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii in January when a drunken Brown was removed by NFL security after trying to bash in his wife’s hotel door.
Nonetheless, this April the team brought Brown back and signed him to a new two-year contract. When Daily News sports columnists questioned the moves, the Giants dismissed the criticism.
The dangerous deflections blew up in the team and the league’s faces Wednesday — with the freedom-of-information release by the police department in Washington State’s King County of several of Brown’s own journals and emails.
In them, he admitted to “physically, verbally and emotionally” abusing his wife, often in front of their children.
Thursday, a furiously backpedaling league announced it would reopen the case against Brown. The Giants disclosed that he wouldn’t accompany the team to London for this week’s game.
In 2014, after Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was caught on elevator video hitting his then-fiancée, the NFL — in midst of a public uproar — lifted what had been a two-game suspension of Rice and imposed an indefinite one. The league then rolled out a new policy mandating a minimum six-game suspension for domestic abusers.
They’ve learned nothing at all.