“No More”
That was what New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning said as part of the “No More”, a national movement against domestic violence and sexual assault that was started in 2013. The NFL, trying to recover from the aftermath of the Ray Rice domestic abuse incident, started campaigning with “No More” in fall of 2014 to raise awareness against domestic and sexual violence. Eli Manning was one of many football players who took this stand with “No More”. In fact, the New York Giants had two other players, Mark Herzlich and Prince Amukamara, and were the most participation in the “No More” movement than any other NFL team. The New York Giants also work with My Sister’s Place, an organization that also raises awareness against domestic violence, sexual abuse, human trafficking, etc. Perhaps this was a personal message from the Giants organization that how strongly it felt against domestic abuse and sexual assault.
If the Giants felt this strongly against domestic violence and sexual assault, why did they bring back Josh Brown despite this domestic abuse charge?
It’s weird to me, that a man who was suspended by the NFL FOR a domestic violence case was brought back to a team with strong oppositions to domestic and sexual violence. Perhaps they felt that because he was only suspended for one game, or because the domestic abuse case against Brown was dropped. Perhaps this led them to believe that Brown was innocent.
Then suddenly we find out about how Josh Brown admitted, in many journals and emails, that he had physically, emotionally, and mentally abused his wife. He even admitted to abusing her “more than 20 times”. All of this was compiled into a 165 page police report filed by Molly Brown following his May 2015 domestic abuse arrest. So it becomes clear that Brown is indeed guilty.
Then we find out that the Giants KNEW about this before they re-signed him.
It’s one thing to openly state your values to everyone, but it’s another thing to back up your values. The New York Giants organization stated to the country that they don’t condone domestic abuse in any shape or form. They made that known with their large participation with the “No More” movement and the My Sister’s Place organization. But they didn’t back up their values with the Josh Brown signing, knowing his past. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s mistakes that you knowingly make that make people question where your values are. That’s something the New York Giants organization needs to deeply reflect.
Just a couple of days ago, the Giants General Manager Jerry Reese declined to comment on the Josh Brown situation multiple times. He doesn’t want to talk about this no more.
How fitting.
