Giants Owner John Mara Defends Decision to Re-Sign Josh Brown

The NFL recently suspended New York Giants kicker Josh Brown for one game for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The suspension is reportedly in response to a domestic violence case from 2015 regarding Brown and his ex-wife, per ESPN.com.

The Giants elected to re-sign Brown to a two-year contract during the offseason, and team owner John Mara defended that decision publicly for the first time Wednesday during a press conference at a practice.

According to ESPN.com, Mara said the Giants were “comfortable” with the decision despite the allegations. “All I can tell you is that we’re aware of all the allegations, and I believe all the facts and circumstances,” he said.

Mara also said “you very rarely have a Ray Rice video” when he stated domestic violence isn’t “black or white." 

Seth Walder of the New York Daily News reported that Brown’s ex-wife alleged the kicker “had been physically violent with her over 20 times and that she previously had a protection order against him.” She also claimed Brown began to be violent with her as far back as 2009 when she was pregnant with their daughter.

Despite those allegations, Mara pointed to the fact the charges were dropped following Brown’s 2015 arrest. The team owner also said, “Nothing has happened in the meantime to make us question that decision,” per ESPN.com.

According to James Kratch of NJ.com, Mara said he should have issued public comments on the Brown situation sooner than he did, although he didn't specifically take a stand to say the allegations were untrue.

Kratch also noted Mara "vehemently denied an allegation made by Brown's ex-wife in her interview with authorities that she and Brown were the target of a blackmail attempt by their landlord due to domestic violence calls to their Hoboken [New Jersey] apartment in 2014, and that the Giants and their attorneys 'did what they needed to do to make the guy go away.'"

Mara highlighted the fact the Giants take domestic violence seriously as a team and brought up the training the players and employees go through and the franchise’s work with My Sisters’ Place.

Brown is suspended for one game, but ESPN.com reported the NFL has a baseline policy in place for a six-game suspension for a first offense for domestic violence. However, “mitigating circumstances” can make the initial six-game ban shorter.

Brown said he told the Giants about the domestic violence allegations on the same day in 2015, per ESPN.com.

Mara said, “I’m trying to be fair to him as well. I think he’s trying to do the right thing,” when discussing Brown on Wednesday and the Giants’ decision to give him another chance, per ESPN.com.

Brown publicly disagreed with the one-game suspension after the NFL handed it down because the case was dismissed in five days and happened in 2015, according to Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

New York begins its 2016 season on Sept. 11 against the Dallas Cowboys. According to ESPN.com, the Giants signed kicker Randy Bullock in response to the Brown suspension.