for the record, the fact that antonio brown is going to be allowed to play this sunday is fucking disgusting.
"it's a civil case", so you don't even bother benching the player for a game and doing your own investigation until you have a sense of whether or not you're employing a rapist for millions of dollars?
fuck the patriots and fuck the NFL. this is inexcusable.
Saying this not as a racist and sexist Patriot fan, but from a neetral perspective:
The fact that its a civil lawsuit and not criminal (even though it alleges rape), puts the league in a position where they really can't just take him off the field without at least investigating first. If they did it sets a precedent where any frivolous civil claim would require them to pop a play on the exempt list without any evidence.
The accuser is getting married this weekend, so wasn't able to meet with the league till next week (supposed to happen Wednesday from what I have heard), so after that they will likely meet with Brown and then can decide how to proceed.
No player has ever been put on the exempt list for a civil suit before without some other evidence.
As for the Patriots, the decision to dress him or not comes tomorrow, so while he has been practicing, its not a slam dunk he plays. But they are in a similar situation. From all reports, this was an ongoing negotiation for a settlement which included a gag order until the suit got filed Tuesday. So contrary to some opinions out in the ether, the Pats were completely unaware of the situation (as apparently were the Raiders) as Brown & Rosenhaus were not permitted to publicly disclose anything about the situation. That of course changed once the suit was filed. They are now on the hook for 10 Million guaranteed. And they obviously have talked to Brown and Rosenhaus about it since the news broke, they have heard his side of things, and maybe they feel he's not guilty of rape, who knows. But we'll see if he's active tomorrow.
If this wasn't Brown, but a player with an otherwise clean image and history (Let's say Drew Brees just to keep it away from teams you love or hate aka Eagles and Patriots respectively) and this came out, he categorically denied it, there were no criminal charges, would you be disgusted if he weren't immediately suspended or put on the exempt list?
Until at least some of the facts are known, can't just use Brown's reputation as a loon against him.
for the record, if this exact same thing came out about carson wentz the day before the super bowl, yes i would 100% still say he should be benched. morally, it's the right thing to do.
