NFL to reopen the investigation on Josh Brown

Soxfan in Fla

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Isn't a big reason you hire long-time security people because they have inside connections and know how to gain access to information even when they don't? And this guy just goes through a public channel without trying to use his past or positions with the NFL to establish any credibility or position of authority.
I'm sure he's following orders on that from the top. Be as incompetent as possible so we don't know jack.
 

axx

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The depths they investigated Deflategate compared to cases like this is so staggering.
That's because they actually cared. They don't care about players personal lives unless the media cares. And whether the media cares is something they can't predict.
 

Marciano490

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That's because they actually cared. They don't care about players personal lives unless the media cares. And whether the media cares is something they can't predict.
Whether the media finds out you mean.
 

Bongorific

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If they wanted the records, the FOIL/FOIA request is made by counsel. Not a PI. This is beyond incompetence. It's intentional head in the sand.
 

axx

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Whether the media finds out you mean.
That's not how the media works these days. "Journalists" these days tend to have selective amnesia. Whoever was going to blow this up had to care and most likely an axe to grind with the NFL for whatever reason. That Brown beat his wife isn't exactly news, and that the NFL didn't really bother to investigate it (esp once Brown admitted) shouldn't really be a shocker either.
 

PedroKsBambino

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It's intentional head in the sand.
This is the only conclusion someone can possibly have about the nfl's approach, I agree. Always hard to discern evil vs incompetent, but here we definitely have the first even if we also have the second
 

Ed Hillel

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I enjoyed Steven A's racial hot take today asking why was Brown being treated differently than Ray Rice. Uh, bro, this is basically the exact same thing that happened with Ray Rice. Which makes it all the sadder and, ignoring the awful content, kinda hilarious. It's hard to imagine a bigger group of idiots.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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I enjoyed Steven A's racial hot take today asking why was Brown being treated differently than Ray Rice. Uh, bro, this is basically the exact same thing that happened with Ray Rice. Which makes it all the sadder and, ignoring the awful content, kinda hilarious. It's hard to imagine a bigger group of idiots.
Wasn't Rice originally suspended for two games, while Brown only one?
 

Ed Hillel

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Wasn't Rice originally suspended for two games, while Brown only one?
Yes, that is fair, but I believe Roger had seen the video at that point. The larger point is that, in both cases, Roger worked behind the scenes with owners to dole out a much smaller suspension than warranted. Stephen A was more upset about how Rice was out of football now, but it only got bad for Rice after the video emerged. The NFL tried to cover Rice up, as well. The one game aside, I view this as basically the exact same thing.
 

Tyrone Biggums

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The depths they investigated Deflategate compared to cases like this is so staggering.
The owners cared about nailing the Patriots because they think competitive balance will help things such as team revenue in my opinion. Plus the front office is very pro NYJ NYG. Now that bias has shown again with one of Rogers favorite franchises. Regardless of if you feel it's an insensitive comparison to make between this and being "Generally Aware" the NFL did this to itself. They had a long investigation and spent millions and fined the Pats in money and picks. Yet, they were aware of multiple incidents involving Brown and 1 game is apparently acceptable.

Honestly it makes you wonder the type of shit the NFL has been successful in covering up for teams.
 

Super Nomario

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Yes, that is fair, but I believe Roger had seen the video at that point. The larger point is that, in both cases, Roger worked behind the scenes with owners to dole out a much smaller suspension than warranted. Stephen A was more upset about how Rice was out of football now, but it only got bad for Rice after the video emerged. The NFL tried to cover Rice up, as well. The one game aside, I view this as basically the exact same thing.
I think the biggest difference here is that Rice happened before the league had a Very Serious Domestic Violence Policy. Rice got two games when there was no specific punishment for hitting his fiancee / wife. Brown got one game when the league had a documented six game policy. Both are bad, and Rice had more legs than this will because of the video, but Brown is a more baffling miss, IMO, because it flew in the face of what they had just put in place.
 

johnmd20

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And the kicker being they missed this despite it being about Josh "Who Gives A Crap" Brown. I get the NY Giants Mara angle but this is still so stupid by the NFL and the Giants.
 

soxfan121

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To carry the analogy further, the NFL is essentially someone with congenital insensitivity to pain.
This isn't all on the NFL. A good amount of it is, but we also bear some responsibility. We should know, and expect, the NFL to do things like this. It is how they do things. Fans, like myself, who continue to tune in and consume their product (and the products of their sponsors) also deserve a small fraction of the blame. I don't imagine many Giants season ticket holders cancelled because the kicker was revealed to be a serial wife-beater. The Pats didn't lose many when Aaron Hernandez killed those dudes. We keep going back to the NFL because we like the product and that contributes to the NFL's ability to provide such PR masterpieces. The NFL routinely allows this sort of shit to go on and while they are mostly responsible, so are we for coming back for more.

We've been hurt before, but the League will change – we believe them.
 

trs

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I don't get to watch many games living in the wrong time zone, but yesterday I was watching Red Zone and heard the announcer talk about Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I realize that raising awareness about cancer is pretty much always a good thing, but then to encourage survivors to tweet about it with an NFL-advertising hashtag and on top of that to be sure to mention any NFL player or team that "inspired" them during the process rang pretty goddamn hollow to me. I'm sure part of my distaste comes from general anti-NFL sentiments picked up over the past 18 months as a Patriots fan, but I wonder how it would feel to a survivor or worse yet to someone who had lost someone to breast cancer to watch the NFL attempt to show concern over women's health (but please make sure to thank us for your inspiration!) while all this other horrendous shit gets treated as one giant business decision.

Anyway, I could feel my mouth contort hearing the "PSA" on Red Zone last night and needed to vent.
 

pappymojo

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This isn't all on the NFL. A good amount of it is, but we also bear some responsibility. We should know, and expect, the NFL to do things like this. It is how they do things. Fans, like myself, who continue to tune in and consume their product (and the products of their sponsors) also deserve a small fraction of the blame. I don't imagine many Giants season ticket holders cancelled because the kicker was revealed to be a serial wife-beater. The Pats didn't lose many when Aaron Hernandez killed those dudes. We keep going back to the NFL because we like the product and that contributes to the NFL's ability to provide such PR masterpieces. The NFL routinely allows this sort of shit to go on and while they are mostly responsible, so are we for coming back for more.

We've been hurt before, but the League will change – we believe them.
I don't think that fans should be upset with their team (or the league) because someone on the team (or in the NFL) did something abhorrent. Fans should be upset based on how their teams (or the league) reacts when they learn that one of their players did something abhorrent. It's one thing to immediately cut a guy and quite another to sign a guy to an extension and to shame the victim and lie about their investigation/discipline process.
 

Bleedred

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From Yahoo today:

When it comes to air in footballs, Goodell was willing to overlook insufficient evidence and suspend Brady for four games, but when it comes to beating women, Goodell just didn’t have enough to go on to suspend Brown for more than a game. As the league said in a statement, “We concluded our investigation, more than a year after the initial incident, based on the facts and evidence available to us at the time and after making exhaustive attempts to obtain information in a timely fashion.” This despite Mara’s contention he was well aware of Brown’s pattern of abuse — and even “comfortable” enough with it — before his contract extension and one-game suspension

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/tom-brady-takes-high-road-on-roger-goodells-mishandling-of-josh-brown-164126746.html
 
Apparently Tom Brady loves domestic violence.



FTW writer, Nina Mandell,was critical of Brady saying he "whiffed" when he had a chance to speak out against domestic violence during his Monday morning WEEI segment. She even compared him to Ben McAdoo.

Her article (which you can google, I don't even want to link it) conveniently left out the good majority of his remarks including,

“I grew up with three sisters, I was very fortunate to learn from a loving father and a loving mother how to treat and respect women. I have a daughter of my own and domestic violence is a horrible issue. It’s a tragedy when it happens. Any type of abuse or bullying of people who can’t defend or fight for themselves, I have no respect for that."

After a bunch of complaints via twitter and email, she changed her article (slightly) and added more of his comments. WEEI asked to have her on air tomorrow but she declined. What a hack.
 
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dbn

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Apparently Tom Brady loves domestic violence.



FTW writer, Nina Mandell was critical of Brady saying he "whiffed" when he had a chance to speak out against domestic violence during his Monday morning WEEI segment. She even compared his comments to Ben McAdoo.

Her oarticle conveniently left out the good majority of his remarks including,

“I grew up with three sisters, I was very fortunate to learn from a loving father and a loving mother how to treat and respect women. I have a daughter of my own and domestic violence is a horrible issue. It’s a tragedy when it happens. Any type of abuse or bullying of people who can’t defend or fight for themselves, I have no respect for that."

After a bunch of complaints via twitter and email, she changed her article (slightly) and added more of his comments. WEEI asked to have her on air tomorrow but she declined. What a hack.
This will end with Brown getting an 8-game suspension that is reduced to 4 on appeal, and the Patriots losing a draft pick. [/ducks]
 

Van Everyman

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So one thing I still don't get about this whole situation. I get that the league didn't come down on Brown. But why?

Why did they make an exception in this case? What possible benefit did anyone other than Brown—the NFL or Giants—get from not giving this guy the full six game suspension? Brown is not some big star. There were no mitigating circumstances. There was a history everyone was aware of – and it was a near certainty that more facts would come out. This was a textbook example of a test case for enforcing the league's DV policy.

I get that the league office is incompetent. And I get that Mara is the power behind the throne. But even still, someone had to say, "I don't think our usual policy should apply here" – and there is nothing I've seen that suggests who did that or why.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Simple answer is that the league did not WANT to know the extent of Brown's issues, and they stuck their head in the sand specifically because the issue involved the Little Lord Fauntleroy of the league in Mara.

Goodell was doing his buddy a solid. Period. This was the exact thing that happened in the Ray Rice situation before the video because public: Goodell was helping out Bisciotti as a favor by only giving Rice 2 games.
 

TomTerrific

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So one thing I still don't get about this whole situation. I get that the league didn't come down on Brown. But why?

...
I think the obvious explanation is that the Giants, through Mara, wished it so. Even If Brown's only at replacement level, it's a net negative for the team. For the Giants that's the most important consideration, and Mara likely made that clear in some way to Goodell.

EDIT: or as SJH said, they may not even have had to communicate to the League directly, which would watch and take its cues from how the Giants reacted
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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The thing to keep in mind is that Goodell, in addition to his numerous other unsavory traits, is essentially a reactor. He never leads by example or anticipates issues, he always reacts excessively and in a panic to the latest crisis to hit the league office. He never exhibits leadership or long-term thinking. His main goal is to make the problem go away, as quickly as possible, with minimal damage to the image of the league. So when this issue comes up about Brown, Goodell WANTS to hear that the accusations are minimal in nature, number, and tone. If Mara tells him it's not a big deal, Goodell grasps onto that idea with both hands like a shipwreck survivor onto driftwood because he so desperately wants it to be so. The sooner he can quickly sweep something like that under the rug, the happier he is in his simple, dipshit mind. If he does a favor for the favored owners in the league along the way, so much the better, because that means his bonus will be bigger at the end of the year.

The problem with such an approach, of course, is that once things are shown to the whole world to be far more serious than he initially judged (such as with the Brown and Rice situations), he's been caught with his pants down, and he starts thrashing around wildly to make sure that everyone knows it's not his fault. And then just to make sure of it, he'll revisit and double-down on his original punishments, as if to say he's doing the right thing, instead of people rightly concluding that he's an astounding moralless moron.
 

ALiveH

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I get that Brown is hated and a "bad hombre" but at this point, if they further punish Josh Brown, aren't they sort of trampling his rights since he's already gone through due process & been punished? It's sort of a double jeopardy situation for him & the League adding punishment now might open them up to getting a fat lawsuit from Brown.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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We just saw that the CBA essentially allows Goodell to do any damn thing he pleases at this point. He upped Rice's suspension once TMZ released the elevator video, so there's really nothing to stop him from upping Brown's suspension now.
 

Red Right Ankle

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Yes, there is no due process in the NFL discipline process. It's a Star Chamber not a District Court of Appeals.
 

RG33

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When is someone in the media going to ask Goodell the question? It seems so straightforward.

"Commissioner Goodell, was the NFL more probably than not generally aware that Josh Brown was beating his wife?".

I say that seriously. They are claiming to not have had enough evidence and not known the "extent" of things -- but based on the personal conduct policy, they themselves set the standard with Deflategate. Were they not generally aware that more probably than not Brown was a serial abuser?
 

Hagios

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I think the obvious explanation is that the Giants, through Mara, wished it so. [
Exactly.

Plan A: Sweep domestic violence under the rug. The league doesn't want to alienate its owners for things other than winning too much.

Plan B: Unleash righteous fury to show that the league truly cares about preventing domestic violence.
 

Super Nomario

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I get that Brown is hated and a "bad hombre" but at this point, if they further punish Josh Brown, aren't they sort of trampling his rights since he's already gone through due process & been punished? It's sort of a double jeopardy situation for him & the League adding punishment now might open them up to getting a fat lawsuit from Brown.
 

DJnVa

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I get that Brown is hated and a "bad hombre" but at this point, if they further punish Josh Brown, aren't they sort of trampling his rights since he's already gone through due process & been punished?
The NFL isn't a court of law.
 

tims4wins

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Statement from Josh Brown:

I am sorry that my past has called into question the character or integrity of The New York Giants, Mr. Mara or any of those who have supported me along the way. I have taken measures to get help so that I may be the voice of change, not a statistic. It is important to share that I never struck my wife, and never would. Abuse takes many forms, and is not a gray area. Through the past several years I have worked to identify and rectify my own behaviors. The road to rehabilitation is a journey and a constant modification of a way of life. My journey will continue forever as a person determined to leave a positive legacy and I embrace the opportunities to show and speak about what has helped me to be that man. In the interim, I am cooperating with the Giants and the NFL. Thank you to everyone that has supported me, I will not let you down.
-Josh Brown
 

Dahabenzapple2

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"I have taken measures to get help so that I may be the voice of change, not a statistic."

Please tell us this down the road when you've actually changed. If you actually change. How many serial woman abusers actually change? Easy to say you will change. For now and for the foreseeable future, I am simply not interested in hearing *you* be the voice of anything.

So until you have proven through living right and not abusing woman in a serial way for a substantial period of time, please simply shut the fuck up and go the fuck away.
 

Van Everyman

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So are those our "mitigating circumstances"? "Roger, he only verbally threatened her." "Ok, then, one game sounds about right."

Is it too much to hope that a Senate committee calls these pricks in front of Congress and threatens to take away their antitrust exemption if they can't get their fucking domestic violence policy straight? At this point, they are straight up enabling this shit. It would be awesome to see Warren or Gillebrand go after these trust fund babies with everything they have.
 

Ralphwiggum

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I mean, I'm all for people in Brown's position seeking counseling and trying to get better, but that statement is vomit inducing.

-He doesn't apologize to his wife (unless she is lumped into "those who supported him along the way")

-He does apologize to the Giants and Mara, who really don't need it, and who should be doing their own apologizing if anything

-He claims he did not hit his wife, which may be true (who knows), but since he then admits that "abuse takes many forms" (and presumably whatever type of abuse this was fits into one of those other many forms) then who gives a flying fuck whether he hit her or not?

-He says "Abuse takes many forms, and is not a gray area" which doesn't make any sense, but looks like a failed attempt to paint the situation as complex. It surely was, many marriages are, it still doesn't excuse the abuse and reeks of him intimating that he had a reason for doing whatever he did.

-Then proceeds to spout off a bunch of self-serving bullshit about reform and leaving a positive legacy.

That's really one of the more pathetic attempts at an apology I have ever seen*

*Non Donald Trump category
 

Bongorific

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So are those our "mitigating circumstances"? "Roger, he only verbally threatened her." "Ok, then, one game sounds about right."

Is it too much to hope that a Senate committee calls these pricks in front of Congress and threatens to take away their antitrust exemption if they can't get their fucking domestic violence policy straight? At this point, they are straight up enabling this shit. It would be awesome to see Warren or Gillebrand go after these trust fund babies with everything they have.
He didn't say he only verbally threatened her. He said he didn't strike her. Previously he said he physically abused her. Whether that includes shoving, grabbing, hair pulling, etc. shouldn't take this out of the DV protocol. "Hey, at least I wasn't as bad as Ray Rice" is a prettt shitty defense.
 

edmunddantes

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HAHA... what a load of crap from Mara, but no worries. He doesn't have to worry about anyone from Sports media ever calling him out on it in a meaningful way.
 

PedroKsBambino

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Anyone interested in this topic as well as the NFL's handling of DV should read this piece by Deadspin's Diana Moskovitz.

http://deadspin.com/zero-tolerance-for-domestic-violence-will-only-make-it-1787428167
Great article.

This item, about Aroldis Chapman, really sums up the problem with how sports tries to respond to this issue---a focus on the day-one headline and not actual change:

MLB made a big splash with its suspension of Chapman for 30 games. It’s drawn little heat, though, for an item quietly slipped into a New York Timesreport from Aug. 27—as of that date, nearly 10 months after police came to his home, Chapman had been to just one counseling session.