Although I can attend games much less frequently now that I am in college, each and every trip to the stadium brings back that same overwhelming feeling of excitement: the shiver that runs down my spine as the players exit the tunnel in a sea of blue and red before kickoff; the giddiness that overcomes me whenever they break a big play on offense or come up with a critical third down sack; that feeling of childlike euphoria that I don’t think I will ever lose.
I have both cried over the Giants defeats and reveled in their triumphs. And I have always been proud to say that I am a fan of an organization that prides itself on its class and dignity.
I remember when the team hosted the families who suffered unimaginable loss in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, allowing those grieving families to come onto the field for the pre-game introductions. Gestures like those that gave Giants fans their faith in the organization.
However, as of last week things, were different. For the first time in my 22 years of fandom I was ashamed, even disgusted, to call myself a fan of the Giants. I felt betrayed. I received alerts on my phone, read through article after article, seemingly unable to comprehend what I was hearing.
Despite the fact that Giants kicker Josh Brown had admitted to an extensive history of repeated abuse against his ex-wife in texts and emails, the team refused to release him. I watched videos of our owner, John Mara, stand at a podium and utter, “He admitted to us he’d abused his wife in the past. What’s a little unclear is the extent of that,” while commenting that the team “was still gathering information.”
I watched our head coach Ben McAdoo assert that the team “would not turn their backs on Josh Brown” despite these new revelations. I had put too much faith in the team, too much faith in a league which has consistently displayed incredible negligence toward domestic abuse allegations levied against its players. I thought the Giants were different. I was clearly wrong.
The Giants decided to re-sign Brown last April to a two-year contract, despite evidence showing that he was a serial abuser and was facing suspension from the League for his actions. While the Giants eventually released Brown after public pressure continued to mount, the damage has been done. The NFL has once again been tarnished for not responding appropriately to domestic violence.
It is clear that the National Football League and its teams do not care about domestic abuse; They care only about protecting their reputations and their players. They will happily employ a player with a history of abuse, so long as the allegations against him are not damning enough for immense public backlash. We saw this same situation occur just a few years ago, when the Ravens expressed their full support for Ray Rice until the damning videotapes surfaced.
The statements by McAdoo and Mara in tepid support of Brown had come just weeks after our head coach decided to publicly throw our best offensive player under the bus. Odell Beckham plays the game with incredible passion and emotion, a trait which is sorely needed on a roster that far too often seems complacent and directionless. Yet McAdoo had the audacity to say that Beckham “needs to control his emotions better and be less of a distraction to himself and his teammates.”
This is the same Ben McAdoo who contended that Josh Brown was a teammate, “a man of God” who was “making strides.” I will always be a fan of my team, but I do believe that the Giants and the rest of the National Football League need to get their priorities in order.
Yes, that also applies to the fans. A number of NFL fans have claimed that they will begin to boycott the League if it does not crack down on pre-game national anthem protests against police brutality, displays which are not doing any tangible harm and which are within our constitutional rights of expression. These same fans grow quiet when the League’s rampant domestic abuse problem is brought to light.
The NFL’s silence is deafening, and it is heard. And it shows us that its priorities are just as warped as those of the League itself.
