BREAKING NEWS: The NFL made another baffling suspension decision this week.
Unfortunately, it isn’t that baffling considering the league’s track record, but that won’t curb your anger when you hear what New York Giants kicker Josh Brown’s ex-wife alleges he did to her over the course of their marriage.
The NFL suspended Brown for one game Wednesday following a 10-month investigation into his May 2015 domestic violence arrest, but it turns out that wasn’t the first time Brown allegedly abused his ex-wife, Molly Brown.
Molly Brown told police when her now ex-husband was arrested that he had been physically violent with her more than 20 times, including when she was pregnant in 2009, according to the New York Daily News, which obtained an incident report detailing the alleged abuse.
The NFL responded to this news with a statement Friday, and you can read it in its entirety below, via NFL.com.
“In May 2015, the NFL was informed by the New York Giants of Josh Brown’s arrest for an incident in his home involving his then wife. We began an investigation into the incident and circumstances surrounding it.
In the course of the League’s investigation, our investigators became aware that his wife had filed a statement with the county court alleging previous altercations between the spouses. However, despite multiple attempts to speak with her about this incident and her previous statements, she declined to speak with us. We understand that there are many reasons that might have affected her decision not to speak with us, but we were limited in our ability to investigate these allegations.
Over the course of the 10-month investigation, we also made numerous requests — as late as this spring — to local law enforcement officers for information on the case and previous allegations. They declined those requests for information.
As a result of these factors, our investigators had insufficient information to corroborate prior allegations. In addition, no criminal charges were brought forward regarding the incident in question or prior allegations. The NFL therefore made a decision based on the evidentiary findings around this one incident as provided to us by the District Attorney.
The NFL made a finding that Mr. Brown had violated the Personal Conduct Policy. We did so based on the evidence of this one incident as presented in the police report, Mr. Brown and his wife’s statements to police that evening, and his statements in interviews with the NFL.
The NFL Personal Conduct policy allows for discipline to be imposed even when criminal charges are not presented. It further allows for us to consider both aggravating and mitigating factors regarding discipline for domestic violence.
After reviewing the evidence in this one incident, we imposed a one-game suspension for violation of the personal conduct policy.
Mr. Brown and the NFLPA appealed this discipline, but the decision was upheld by a hearing officer.”
Thumbnail photo via Matthew Emmons/USA TODAY Sports Images
