It’s a great thing the NFL’s Josh Brown, a kicker for the New York Giants, isn’t black and makes sure that he always stands for the “Star-Spangled Banner” — otherwise white fans and NFL owners might actually be pissed at him.
Even though it was already widely known that Brown abused his wife, he had gotten little to no backlash for it. Now, as 150 pages of files on Brown have been released, including journal entries where he admits to repeatedly abusing her over the years, the Giants — and white fans around the league — have nothing for him like the scorn they’ve reserved for Colin Kaepernick.
Of course, those cases are apples and oranges. Colin is a law-abiding citizen with no history of physical or emotional abuse of women. He’s never been arrested. Josh Brown, though, was arrested for domestic violence in 2015 and still got a contract extension afterwards. In 2013, after undergoing “counseling” for his abuse, his own journal entries detail incident after incident of domestic violence. The owner of the Giants just admitted that he “certainly” knew Brown abused his wife. In one journal entry, Brown describes his wife as his slave.
Yet, somehow, polls show that Colin Kaepernick is the most hated man in the NFL. Several reports stated that many team owners and league executives also despise Kaepernick.
“F–k him,” said one league executive, detailing confidentially how Kaepernick was the player most despised by league executives since Rae Carruth hired a hitman to kill his pregnant girlfriend. Another league exec called Colin “a traitor,” and said “I don’t want him anywhere near my team.”
Fans have been found burning Kaepernick jerseys. Last week, during a game against the Buffalo Bills, fans chanted “USA” when Kaepernick took a knee before the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Worse yet, they sold T-shirts with gun sights trained on his face — suggesting they wanted to kill him. Other fans outside of the stadium tackled and abused a dummy they were pretending was Kaepernick.
What this tells us is illuminating. It very clearly says that many NFL owners view domestic violence as something far less nefarious than protesting police violence. Let me say that another way: Colin Kaepernick is hated for peacefully and silently protesting violence while Josh Brown in no way receives the same level of scorn from fans, executives or owners for actually being violent, repeatedly, with his wife.
It’s hard not to think of the treatment former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who is black, received after video was released showing that he punched his wife in an elevator. He was effectively suspended for the rest of the NFL season and has been labeled as an untouchable pariah ever since. He’ll likely never play another game of professional football ever again.
This says more about the disposable nature of African-American athletes than it does about the NFL actually being tough on domestic violence. With every day that passes, we learn more and more about what the league and the Giants knew about Josh Brown’s domestic violence. What we do know is that he was given a wink, a nod and two more years on his contract.
If Josh Brown were a black man, or had taken a knee during the anthem — 100% of the NFL players who have done so thus far are black — he’d be despised by now. Instead, the Giants say they are sticking by him. Nobody has burned his jersey. No T-shirts are being sold mocking his assassination.
To be black and a peaceful protester of violence makes one far more hated than being white and beating and intimidating a woman. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the definition of white privilege.
