Sparks are beginning to fly as new information about Josh Brown and his ex-wife, Molly, has come out. And that’s a good thing. On Thursday, NYC City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito blasted the New York Giants and the NFL.
Brown himself has admitted to abusing his ex-wive, and the King County Sheriff’s office released their findings on Wednesday after a lengthy investigation. The details of the investigation are not pretty.
Mark-Viverito opened by saying “The NFL has an abysmal record of standing up for players at the expense of the women they abuse.”
Below is the entire statement (h/t Jane McManus of ESPN) in which she urges the Giants to reconsider joining the #NotAFan campaign and to work with the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence “to establish meaningful policies that reflect the reality of this awful crime.”
NYC City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito blasts Giants on Josh Brown, urges Giants to support #NotAFan in light of admission of abuse. pic.twitter.com/AAWpIbJ6dQ
— Jane McManus (@janesports) October 20, 2016
To this point, the reality is that the NFL has only been truly reactionary as it pertains to dealing with domestic violence.
Ray Rice got the punishment of being blacklisted because what he did was caught on camera and displayed for all to see. But the league failed to get out in front of that, just as it failed to get in front of Greg Hardy’s abuse, and now we’re seeing it again with Brown.
The big difference between Hardy and Rice is that Hardy was allowed back into the NFL after being cleared in court, only because the victim in his case failed to show up. And it was only after a Deadspin investigation that the true nature of Hardy’s brutal abuse towards his ex-girlfriend that he became an untouchable — not to mention he just wasn’t as good anymore.
The NFL was not privy to the report that just came out Wednesday that implicated Brown as a perpetrator of similar violence towards his ex-wife, Molly. In light of this new released information, the NFL has said it will reopen the case against Brown.
But to say the league was unaware things had escalated between the two would not be factual, if Molly’s version of events is true.
She alleges, per the police report, that the NFL actually had to relocate her and her children while in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl last January. Brown was reportedly drunk, banging on her hotel room door and yelling to the point NFL security had to remove him, then relocate her (more on that here).
With all this in mind, we applaud the NYC Council Speaker for speaking up on this matter and asking the NFL to finally put its money where its mouth is in relationship to domestic violence.