Randy Moss, Tedy Bruschi highly critical of Roger Goodell's handling of Josh Brown case
Two more former NFL players have weighed in on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and his mishandling of the situation with New York Giants kicker Josh Brown.
Randy Moss, during a segment on ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” discussing Brown and the league continuing to bungle domestic violence cases, put things squarely on Goodell’s shoulders.
“[It’s] breast cancer awareness month, where we’re sitting here supporting the women and then you come up with this Josh Brown where it doesn’t seem like we are supporting women,” Moss said. “So I think the NFL really needs to take a deep look. I think owners are mad and Roger Goodell, he is the biggest reason to all of this stuff that’s falling downhill with the NFL.”
Nearly two years after it made a show of saying it was going to take the issue of domestic violence more seriously, hiring employees to help deal with cases and implementing a six-game suspension for first-time offenders, the league has stumbled again. Brown was arrested in May 2015 for assaulting his now-ex-wife in their Seattle-area home, and instead of using the standard he developed, giving Brown the six-game suspension for a first-time offender, Goodell instead gave him just one game.
On Friday, after King County (Wash.) Sheriffs released more documents from the Browns’ case, the NFL and the Giants faced renewed scrutiny. Not only did Josh Brown admit in journal documents and a form that looked like it was from a counseling session that he abused his wife, the documents revealed that Molly Brown called NFL Security earlier this year, at the Pro Bowl, after a belligerent Josh was pounding on her hotel room door. NFL Security moved Molly and her children to a different hotel, not telling Josh their new location.
And it isn’t just the league giving only lip service to domestic violence – it is also the wildly inconsistent punishments Goodell metes out that have garnered criticism. As noted by Cleveland Browns All-Pro Joe Thomas on Twitter on Saturday, Washington’s Vernon Davis was fined over $12,000 this week for simulating a jump shot while celebrating a touchdown last Sunday; players have been fined for custom or improper cleats, and let’s not forget deflate-gate, when the league spent $20 million and suspended Tom Brady four games for maybe, possibly having knowledge of something that maybe, possibly happened to the inflation of footballs.
Former Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi, also speaking on ESPN, said players in the league are taught the importance of consistency on the field and in the meeting rooms, but the NFL itself is not showing consistency.
“Right now, I am just numb to the incompetence of the NFL,” Bruschi said. “I am not surprised with this, that they messed this up again, now they have the dreaded two words, ‘new information,’ new information that possibly they could have gotten before if they had handled this maybe a little better.”
