Giants and NFL all guilty of Ignoring the Josh Brown Fiasco

The New York Giants should be disgusted with themselves.

When given the chance to do the right thing back in August, Big Blue turned its back on the facts and allowed kicker Josh Brown to remain on the team. They allowed a man who (at the time) allegedly abused his wife to remain a part of the one of the flagship franchises in the National Football League.

The NFL is equally culpable in this mess. When presented with the facts all they did was suspend Brown for one game, the season opener in Dallas.  Typically a domestic abuse case in the NFL would require a six-game suspension.

Now the backlash is coming back at the NFL and the Giants, after a journal entry submitted by Brown's ex-wife, Molly to the Kings County (Washington) Prosecutors office, detailed the ugly truth, Brown abused his wife. He even went as far to say that he "physically, verbally and emotionally abused my wife Molly." The letters also document Brown's obsession with sex, and his history of abusing women which began at age seven.

All of this comes out after we learned in the summer of 20 incidents in which Brown abused his ex-wife. Those abuses date back to 2009 when she was pregnant with their child.

In short, this dude is flat out disgusting.

What makes this sad story most sickening is that the Giants knew about it, and did nothing. Giants President and Co-Owner John Mara admitted during the summer that he knew of Browns arrest from 2015 in Washington state when the Brown case opened up. Yet, it was not enough to convince the Giants not to re-sign the kicker.

“Based on the facts and circumstances that we were aware of at that time, we were comfortable with our decision to re-sign him,” Mara said while standing on the porch of the Giants’ training facility at the Meadowlands. “Nothing has happened in the meantime to make us question that decision.”(NY Daily News). 

The Giants signed him to a two-year deal this off-season, and have stood behind him even in light of the latest allegations. Before taking off for London, Giants coach Ben McAdoo said that they would "not turn their backs on Josh." 

Eli Manning was also "all over the place" according to the New York Post in his response to the Brown allegations. In a way you can understand this from the player and coach standpoint, because the subject is so touchy, and it isn't official whether Brown will be gone or not. 

Still the lack of enforcement by the Giants front office when it mattered the most is truly troubling. While many assume that Browns career with Big Blue is over, nothing has been made official. The Giants did sign Robbie Gould to take over for Brown, which may signal an end game for the disgraced kicker, but a decision probably will wait until the NFL makes its own determination. 

Currently the NFL placed Brown on the league exempt list, which is the NFL version of limbo. In a nutshell Brown will still get paid, but can not play in any games, attend any games, nor does he could on the 53-man roster. He can still work out at the facility via the teams' permission. The NFL is currently doing an investigation that it should have done months, if not years ago on Brown. 

If the NFL determines that the evidence from the King County Police Department is too damning, one would figure that it could be the end of Brown's career. 

Yet, a punishment seems hallow now. The NFL continues to strike out in the public image department. They botched the Ray Rice fiasco, suspending Rice only one game when video came out of the former running back slugging his wife. After outside pressure, the NFL instituted a stronger ban, and Rice never played in the NFL again. The NFL also botched the Adrian Peterson incident with a slap on the wrist. Peterson returned last season after missing all of the 2014 season due in part to injury and the scandal involving child abuse. Not to mention Deflategate challenged the collective bargaining agreement. 

And the NFL wonders why people are turning off the television sets? 

This is the latest disgrace. Nobody comes out clean in this disaster. The best news that would come out of this is if Brown never plays in the NFL again.