Former Nebraska football kicker Josh Brown is in the NFL headlines for all the wrong reasons ... again. In a text message that was sent to ESPN and read during SportsCenter, the NFL announced it had suspended Brown an additional six games after it reopened its domestic abuse investigation against him. This reopening of the case led to the league finding that the former New York Giants player had violated the NFL's conduct policy.
"We reopened the investigation based on new info," the NFL texted to ESPN's studios on Friday morning.
"Concluded there was a violation of our personal conduct policy and imposed 6 game suspension which he accepted without appeal."
The odd tale of Josh Brown
This announcement is just the latest in what has been a truly strange situation for the NFL and the former Nebraska football kicker. When news of accusations by Brown's now ex-wife that he had abused her first surfaced, the league came under a massive amount of fire, because they only suspended him one game. This was despite the fact that Brown had admitted to authorities that he had abused her in the past.
Despite what many felt was exceedingly light punishment, the Giants released Brown shortly after his admission of abuse. That was in October of 2016 and he hasn't kicked a single extra point or field goal in the NFL since becoming a free agent.
That makes the announcement on Friday, almost a year since the first suspension a case of odd timing at the very least. Some people wonder if the timing doesn't have something to do with yet another domestic violence case the NFL is currently embroiled in.
The NFL's continued poor handling of domestic violence cases
The announcement that the former Nebraska football and New York Giants kicker was getting an additional suspension comes on the same day Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliot is due to hear whether a federal judge will grant him a temporary restraining order against his own suspension.
The length of that suspension? Six games.
One of the issues at the heart of Ezekiel's arguments against missing so much time is that the NFL simply is not consistent with suspensions under its conduct policy. The running back has a point, when looking at Brown's one game penalty. The Bleacher Report indicates there are several experts who think the NFL is trying to look more consistent retroactively. It's unknown just how stupid the league believes the judge handling the Elliott case must be.
