New York Giant’s kicker, Josh Brown was suspended for one game this year, for physically and verbally abusing his wife. However, yesterday some excerpts from Brown’s journal were released to the public. As a result of what Brown said, the NFL’s domestic abuse policy is once again being put in the spotlight. The biggest question the NFL has to answer is why Josh Brown is still playing football, when people like Greg Hardy and Ray Rice cannot even get an opportunity to play football.
Brown said, “I viewed myself as God basically and she was my slave. I carried an overwhelming sense of entitlement because I put money higher than God, and I used it as a power tool.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/sports/football/josh-brown-domestic-violence-new-york-giants.html?_r=0 , 10-20-16).
Brown was arrested for verbally and physically abusing his former wife Molly, in May 2015. The release of the 165 page journal came from the Kings County Police Department in Washington State. Molly Brown never turned over any of these documents to the NFL when it was investigating Brown’s domestic abuse last year. Molly Brown refused to testify. As Brown said he used money as a tool of power against his wife. Brown probably did not cooperate with the NFL because she did not want to affect the money he was making.
This was the first time NFL officials heard about the extensive domestic abuse history of Brown, and it turns out, Brown had told the New York Giants that he did abuse his wife. This is a failure of the highest degree from the NFL, the New York Giants, and the Kings County Police Department. So far the only punishment Brown has faced is a one game suspension. The Giants kept him on the team anyway and never told the league that Brown admitted to abuse.
The NFL suspends players for four games for their first offense of domestic abuse. In this instance the Giants valued Brown’s ability to make field goals and extra points over the image of the league and the team’s reputation. All have taken a hit. The NFL has been trying to keep and gain more female fans, and this case is not helping, especially when you have a team in the NFL not reporting to league officials that one of its players admitted, that he abused his wife.
As of the writing of this article, the Giants have told Brown to stay away from the team facility and from Giants game. The Giants are currently in London, England getting ready for a 9:30 am EST matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. The NFL also has reopened an investigation into Brown’s case.
The more uncomfortable question the league needs to answer is why Brown is still playing in the NFL? While players like Ray Rice who actually served a prison sentence for abusing his wife. Cannot get an opportunity to play football, and Greg Hardy another player who settled a domestic abuse case with his girlfriend, also cannot get an opportunity to play in the league, most NFL fans, journalists, and experts know that the league values talent over morals. The League needs to makes it clear that when it comes to domestic abuse it does not value talent over morals and unlike Rice and Hardy, Brown should be banned from the NFL, and the Giants need to be punished for not sharing Brown’s admission of guilt. Or, does the league truly value money and talent over morals?
