You hate to think this, but today what would the Giants do to be the Jets right now.
Gang Green is having a nice quiet training camp and celebrated their in game features at MetLife Stadium today, while across the parking lot, John Mara had to answer a bunch of tough questions.
Mara knew what he was getting into when he re-signed Josh Brown back in April. The domestic violence issues were there and the Giants figured it was worth the risk.
The Giants owner went on to defend his position.
“In this particular case, as an employer, it is a complicated and emotional issue and you have to make decisions based on the facts and circumstances you are presented with,” Mara said. “When we made this decision, we knew that the NFL was going to conduct its own investigation. We had no idea how long that was going to take. Obviously, it has resulted in Josh being handed a one-game suspension. We accept that decision, we support it and now we move on.”
Sandy Alderson would call this a “bad optic.”
It helped that Brown went to the Pro-Bowl and converted on over 93% of his field goals last year and 44 of 45 point after attempts. A lot went wrong last year, but Brown was not the problem.
However, his situation came off the field.
Now the Giants are not the Raiders or Cowboys. They don’t take just anyone with a questionable background off the street, but they have employed players who had some skeletons in the closet. Obviously, Lawrence Taylor comes to mind, as does Kerry Collins and Christian Peter.
And remember what Plaxaco Burress did with a gun back in 2008.
So yeah, the Giants don’t run a monastery in East Rutherford, but re-signing Brown makes you wonder.
He was great least year, sure and the Giants have had special teams’ problems in the past and they are working with Brown to resolve his off the field issues. It’s what a good employer does.
“I happen to know and I wouldn’t normally say this, but I think he has made it public that he has been going through counseling for a couple of years now,” Mara said. “We are pretty confident that he has been very diligent about that. He has been a good citizen since he has been here.”
The one game suspension came from the league and Brown is going to do his time. It’s not on Mara to say the suspension is too light and if he personally increases it, he may have issues with the Players Association. Commissioner Roger Goodell acted and the Giants are living with the situation.
They are also hedging their bets too.
By signing Randy Bullock and telling him that this is more than a one and out, they are putting Brown on notice. If Bullock succeeds then the Giants can easily cut Brown and move on. Call it a football move, and there will be no problems.
It makes sense, but like a round of golf on a bad quad, that’s a bad optic.
After the domestic violence situations in the NFL the past few years and this season in baseball with Aroldis Chapman getting a month and Jose Reyes essentially getting a third of the season, why does Brown get one week?
This is something that may not go away and short of just cutting Brown, they are simply open to criticism.
It’s just a bad optic.
Boy, don’t they wish they are the Jets right now.
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