New York Giants’ rookie cornerback Eli Apple’s mother, Annie, has been outspoken recently regarding her disappointment in the way the team handled the domestic violence situation with former kicker Josh Brown. Annie also recently said that the Giants have told her son to try to quiet his mother down, which is a claim Apple himself denied on Thursday.
The up-and-coming defender says that nobody from the team has pressured him to try to silence his mother, who has written several columns at Sports Illustrated detailing her own domestic abuse survival.
Annie minced no words in publicly ripping the Giants’ organizations mishandling of the Josh Brown scandal on SI.com in late October. Co-owner John Mara was at the center of her comments condemning the team’s actions:
“How are you a so-called champion of domestic violence but lack basic compassion for a victim? Yes, this man signs my son’s checks as I’ve been reminded on Twitter. I am a domestic violence survivor.”
Another column on SI.com was released on Wednesday in which she continued to lambaste the Giants’ organization.
“I was livid with the Giants, not just because of John Mara’s comments but I was disappointed in the organization because I felt they were leaning heavily on a 21-year-old kid in an effort to control what his mother says. That’s not fair.”
She is likely alluding to comments Mara made during a recent radio interview with WFAN. Mara had said that Brown “admitted to us he’s abused his wife in the past, but what I think is a little unclear is the extent of that.” Brown was suspended just one game to begin the season before ultimately being placed on the commissioner’s exempt list on October 21 in light of new details regarding his alleged abuse of his ex-wife.
The Giants finally decided to release Brown on October 25 while Apple was the team’s first-round pick last April out of Ohio State.
