EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) - The New York Giants have started discussions about placekicker Josh Brown and his future with the team a day after returning from a game in London.
Coach Ben McAdoo said Monday that the team’s front office met to talk about Brown, and that he would probably join those talks either later in the evening or on Tuesday morning.
The NFL placed Brown on paid leave Friday after the kicker disclosed in journals and emails released by authorities in the state of Washington that he abused his then-wife.
The Giants did not allow Brown to leave with them Thursday for London for Sunday’s 17-10 win over the Los Angeles Rams.
Being placed on Commissioner Roger Goodell’s “exempt” list means Brown cannot attend practices or Giants games but can go to team’s headquarters for meetings and workouts.
McAdoo said Brown was not there Monday, a day the players had off. He also said he does not expect the 37-year-old to be at the facility Tuesday, when the players meet for the final time before a bye-week vacation.
The first-year coach would not say whether he wanted Brown’s status with the team determined before the players return from their break next Monday.
“Again, I’ll take part in those discussions either later tonight or tomorrow morning early and I’ll jump in with both feet and we’ll see how it goes,” McAdoo said.
Brown’s future has overshadowed everything to do with the team following Wednesday’s release of police records which contained the player’s written admissions that he physically abused his wife, Molly, over a protracted period. She told police in the documents released by the King County Sheriff’s Office that the abuse and other threatening behavior stretched from 2009, when she was pregnant with their daughter, to the Pro Bowl in January 2016.
Brown was arrested in May 2015 on a domestic abuse charge, and his then-wife sought and was granted a temporary protection order against her husband.
The order was reissued several times until July 24, 2015 when the order was terminated by the court at Molly Brown’s request.
At the Pro Bowl in Honolulu, Brown’s wife said she called NFL security to move her and her three children to another hotel to avoid harassment from her estranged husband. She said he had pounded on their hotel door seeking to get in. The allegation is included in the final report filed last month by the local investigating detective, Robin Ostrum.
Brown’s former wife did not respond to messages last week seeking comment from The Associated Press. A law firm representing the kicker declined to comment.
The NFL’s official policy is to suspend players guilty of domestic abuse for six games on their first offense. Brown was suspended for one game, the Giants’ season-opening victory over the Dallas Cowboys, in punishment for his 2015 arrest at his family home in Woodinville, Washington.
The arrest report said he assaulted his wife by grabbing one of her wrists as she tried to reach for a phone, leaving an abrasion and bruising. No charges were filed, but a detective gathered detailed statements from Molly Brown, who also provided her husband’s written admissions of abuse in diary and email entries.
The NFL said its investigators asked to see these records but were denied. The league has said it has reopened its investigation into Brown and he could face further punishment.
Brown, who told the media in August that his arrest in 2015 was a one-time issue, was re-signed to a two-year, $4 million contract in April despite the team’s knowledge of his arrest and the Pro Bowl incident.
___
AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL
Please read our comment policy before commenting.