Brown case will be test for Goodell
Patriots loyalists might have awakened Wednesday with an essential, save-our-butts query for Bill Belichick:
Can we send Antonio Brown back to Oakland?
Or even Pittsburgh?
Brown was barely an official member of the team for 24 hours before the drama hit the fan with a civil lawsuit alleging that he raped his former trainer, Britney Taylor, and sexually assaulted her twice. The incidents allegedly occurred in 2017 and 2018.
Brown’s attorney, Darren Heitner, has denied all of the allegations, characterizing the matter as “a money grab.”
On the same day Brown hit the field for his first Patriots practice, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and other operatives at league headquarters weighed whether to put the best receiver on the planet on ice – the commissioner’s exempt list – while they commenced an investigation to determine whether he’ll be disciplined under the personal-conduct policy.
Here’s the risk for Goodell: If you let Mr. Boomin’ play and the allegations prove to be true, can you survive the fallout that will also unpack the Ray Rice disaster in 2014?
Remember, the image-conscious NFL has promised to do better with issues of sexual assault and violence against woman.
Now comes another real-life situation to severely test league leaders’ principles and policies against the social justice ideals of due process in a #MeToo environment.
This is what the “exempt list” is for: buy time when extreme cases meriting special attention surface.
And this would be a special case, bringing another round of attention to the NFL in the worst way.
Go ahead, Roger: Use that power that Ezekiel Elliott, Tom Brady, DeMaurice Smith and a few others have fought you over. The credibility of your shield is in the wind. Brown would still get paid while on the list, and if his name is ultimately cleared, maybe he can hop back on a fast track to a Super Bowl mission.
You have to wonder whether the Patriots – who struck a one-year deal with Brown worth $15 million, with $9 million guaranteed, just hours after his release from Oakland on Saturday – saw this coming.
If not, they would have every right to cut bait and void the $9 million while sending Brown packing in the name of bad-faith negotiating.
Belichick wouldn’t address that specific detail during his pre-practice news conference, maintaining, “When we know more, we’ll say more.”
Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, didn’t reveal whether the Patriots were informed of this potential bombshell, either, when pressed by ESPN’s Cari Champion. “I’m not going to get into that element … what may or may not have been discussed,” Rosenhaus said.
It’s striking that the Patriots suddenly have this on their plate. A high ground against sexual assault and violence against women is seemingly embedded in the franchise’s DNA. In 1996, early in the ownership reign of Robert Kraft, the Patriots became the first team in NFL history to relinquish their rights to a draft pick when they cut ties with fifthround defensive tackle Christian Peter days after his selection – when Kraft’s late wife, Myra, demanded as much upon learning he had been convicted of sexual assault.
More recently, though, Kraft has also felt the sting of a rush to judgment. When he was charged with solicitation of prostitution stemming from two visits to a day spa in Jupiter, Florida, in January, the original narrative by authorities portrayed the case in a larger context that involved human trafficking – but prosecutors later said there was no evidence to support that claim. Also, video evidence collected in the case was thrown out on the grounds that it had been illegally obtained.
Now, weeks after starting safety Patrick Chung was indicted on pending cocaine possession charges, the Patriots are in another thorny legal matter, albeit a civil one.
It’s unclear whether Brown will suit up for Sunday’s game at Miami and then ponder whether to exempt-list the receiver as the investigation unfolds.
In a statement released by her attorney Tuesday, Taylor said she will cooperate with the NFL or any other agency pursuing the matter. Yet ESPN’s Adam Schefter tweeted Wednesday that she won’t be available to interview with the NFL until next week – after her wedding.
This, too, could ultimately swing as a matter of he said, she said.
Brown’s viability as a witness can surely be questioned when considering the string of events that have become public over recent months, including his stormy departure from the Raiders and the acrimony with the Steelers that inspired a trade to Oakland.
And if the text messages contained in Taylor’s lawsuit are proved to be authentic, they represent a major hit on his character.
If Goodell hits the pause button now, it wouldn’t be his worst move. Better safe than sorry.