NFL learning domestic violence punishment is hard when you can’t investigate
More Teams. More Games.
Jane McManus shares her thoughts on how the Josh Brown situation culminated with his release from the Giants and weighs in on the current state of the league. (3:22)
Kicker Josh Brown has been released by the New York Giants, but the NFL’s issues when it comes to handling cases of domestic violence are far from over.
The complications seem clear for the NFL, which was hoping for a fresh start with a revised conduct policy following the Ray Rice fiasco. For one, the league is not in a position to fully investigate allegations of domestic violence and is completely reliant on facts to become known — such as Brown’s journal, in this instance. Second, the league is realizing these cases have too many mitigating circumstances to stick to the firm six-game minimum penalty standard.
A police report is like a snapshot of a moment. You can’t take it as the complete truth because it simply states what’s known at a specific moment. There were a lot of red flags that deserved a follow-up from the NFL regarding the initial police report Molly Brown filed, but it’s clear the league can only do so much.
According to NFL disciplinary officer Todd Jones and a statement the league put out after issuing a one-game suspension to Brown in August, the NFL didn’t have enough evidence to suspend Brown for six games. Witnesses didn’t cooperate and police departments wouldn’t speak to the league.
To be clear: While the NFL’s 2014 code of conduct policy calls for a six-game minimum suspension in cases of domestic violence, it also stipulates that aggravating and mitigating factors be taken into account. In Brown’s case, the league felt there were far too many to hand out six games.
“Sometimes that mitigation may not be a fact; it may be the lack of a fact,” Jones said in an interview after the one-game suspension was announced.
And that’s how Molly Brown’s understandable refusal to meet with NFL investigators became a mitigating factor in an abuse case.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
The NFL has an incredible amount of control over how it disciplines player conduct. The league went to the mat with Tom Brady over deflated footballs, spending nearly $20 million in legal fees, according to ESPN’s Darren Rovell. The league fines players tens of thousands for celebrating with “prolonged gyrations” or wearing cleats too colorful to fit within the rulebook.
Discipline is one thing. But actual investigations?
As it turns out, investigations aren’t any easier for the NFL than for law enforcement. Welcome to the murky world of domestic violence cases. Prosecutors don’t often bring charges without a cooperating witness, and most alleged victims have reasons not to press the case — whether they fear retaliation or don’t want to break up a family or have hope that the perpetrator won’t ever hurt them again.
Victims don’t want to talk to the NFL any more than they want to talk to cops. Probably less, in fact. Molly Brown didn’t, and neither did Colleen Crowley after former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel was pulled over in Ohio. The NFL investigated that case — when multiple people called 911 to report a reckless driver — and the NFL cleared Manziel. Crowley later alleged that he hit her hard enough to cause temporary deafness in one ear. That case is still pending.
Jones said NFL investigators can’t get to much information that isn’t part of the public record. But the league did have access to the Josh Brown police file that contained statements from Molly Brown saying the abuse happened 20 times and a police officer at the scene who said, on the record, that Molly Brown seemed fearful.
Do you believe her? Do you believe any alleged victim? Or do you only believe it if she presses charges or agrees to cooperate and says it again to you? Or do you not believe her at all, accepting only video evidence or the painful admissions of a man in therapy?
Jones also points to the importance of being fair to players and employees, who are the only people the NFL can compel to cooperate with these investigations.
Advocates for victims of domestic violence are concerned that the league isn’t giving the word of alleged victims enough weight, and that they have been unfairly characterized by people in the league. Subtle and not-so-subtle victim-blaming is fairly common. Meanwhile, Rene Renick, the VP of programs for the National Network to End Domestic Violence, is concerned about a team culture that supported Brown despite the abuse.
“I look forward to the day when other teammates say, ‘That’s not OK and I don’t want to take the field with you,’ and that takes a change of culture,” she said.
An elevator video and a written confession make this much simpler, but the NFL and investigators are unlikely to find many such smoking guns.