Giants kicker Josh Brown was a topic of discussion last week after police documents revealed he admitted to abusing his wife. The Giants later revealed they already knew about his admission, and he stayed on the team's roster.
People became upset because they felt Brown didn't deserve to have a job. The NFL eventually placed him on the Commissioner's Exempt List, where he will still earn a salary as a member of the Giants. The team took no steps other than leaving him behind on their trip to London.
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When asked about how he'd handle the situation, Patriots president Jonathan Kraft said Sunday on 98.5 The Sports Hub that his franchise doesn't put up with domestic abuse.
"I'm going to speak for the New England Patriots, and I think going back to the days of Christian Peter, we've been pretty stringent about it and I think ahead of the curve when it comes to the seriousness of this issue," Kraft said, via the Boston Herald. "I don't think there's an issue that you could say ... There might be some that are as serious, but there's nothing more serious than what's going on in the domestic violence and the sexual abuse area. It's something that we have felt strongly about since we've owned the franchise."
Kraft brings up Peter, who was a fifth-round draft pick by New England in 1996. From 1991-95 while in college, he was arrested eight times, convicted four times and accused of assaulting four women. The Patriots faced a media storm after the pick and cut him three days after the draft, the first time a draft pick was released before training camp.
The Patriots also had receiver Julian Edelman charged with indecent assault and battery for allegedly groping a woman in 2011. The team kept him on the roster, and the charges were eventually dropped because video surveillance couldn't prove the allegation.
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Still, Kraft believes his team backs up the zero-tolerance policy.
"Obviously, there's still a ways to go to make it perfect," Kraft said about how domestic abuse in handled in the NFL. "We are, at the Patriots, we have taken it seriously for the 24 years we've owned the team. And is something, for us, there literally is no gray area. It's a very definitive and clear situation."
