Josh Brown will likely not play again for the New York Giants after he was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list.
In a letter to the 14-year veteran, NFL senior vice president of labor policy Adolpho Birch said Brown was being placed on the league’s “exempt list” while the league investigates whether he should be suspended as punishment for several alleged acts of spousal abuse. Birch said the move “does not represent a finding that you have violated the personal conduct policy,” but does pave the way toward potential further sanctions.
Brown can appeal against being placed on the list, and will still be eligible to receive his NFL salary. Various sources have expressed doubt that Brown will ever kick again in the league, after documents emerged this week which revealed the 37-year-old had admitted verbally and physically abusing his wife.
Brown served a one-game suspension for violating the NFL’s conduct policy, following his arrest in May 2015 on domestic abuse charges against his then wife, Molly. He was not charged. The Giants re-signed Brown in April this year, and co-owner John Mara said at the time: “I believe all the facts and circumstances, and we were comfortable with our decision to re-sign him.”
Earlier on Friday, Giants coach Ben McAdoo said the team wasn’t going to abandon Brown, despite leaving him behind for Sunday’s game against the Rams in London. “We’re not going to turn our back on Josh,” McAdoo said. “He’s our team-mate.”
The team said earlier on Friday it would “revisit” Brown’s future when it returns from London and is on its bye week. The NFL also announced it would review the documents that included Brown’s admissions of domestic violence. The league and team have indicated there is new information in the case file from Brown’s 2015 arrest in Washington.
“[Brown] admitted to us he’d abused his wife in the past,” Mara said on Thursday during a radio interview with New York station WFAN. “What’s a little unclear is the extent of that.”
