Josh Brown reportedly won’t appeal placement on Exempt List

Let’s get caught up on the latest news and analysis involving New York Giants placekicker Josh Brown.

No appeal of Exempt List designation

Brown apparently won’t appeal the league’s decision to place him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, a bit of information that was first reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Pro Football Talk said this about that reported decision:

It’s a smart move, given that the league’s ability to use the Commissioner’s-Exempt list in Personal Conduct Policy cases has been previously upheld via arbitration. Also, Brown is still getting paid; if he fights his current status and forces his way to the active roster, he invites a possible termination of his contract by the Giants.

The Giants could still cut him, in theory. The NFL recently confirmed to PFT that placement on the Commissioner’s-Exempt list does not insulate a player from being released. But the Giants could face a grievance if they impose what would amount to a second punishment for his off-field misconduct, in the same way the Ravens did two years ago after cutting Ray Rice.

Giants’ Eli Apple caught in the cross fire

No one can begrudge Annie Apple for speaking her mind when it comes to John Mara and domestic violence. As a domestic violence survivor she has an important story to tell, and she happens to be right that Mara and the Giants have made awful mistakes here.

Unfortunately, this is one of those times when her son, Giants’ first-round pick Eli Apple, is placed in an awkward spot between his mom and the football team he plays for.

Here’s what Eli Apple told the Daily News this weekend.

"I was like, ‘godd--n,’" Apple, the Giants' rookie corner first-round pick, said of his mother's escalating public chastisement of her son's boss. "But she's her own person. She's gonna do whatever she wants to do. She's gonna talk about this. I've just got to understand that. It's cool.

"My mom's very vocal and that topic is very important to her, so I can understand where she was coming from," Apple added. "But at the same time in my position I just have to do my part and play football and do what I can do."

Apple, 21, said he has spoken with people in the Giants organization to assure them that his mother, Annie Apple, is outspoken and "her own person," and that he will continue "to do my job."

"I'll be good on that front," Apple said of his relationship with the Giants. "I talked to them, let them know my mom, her reactions like that sometimes are like that, she's her own person, she's gonna do that, so I've just got to do my job. I just made sure I talked to everybody, man, just let them know, whoever is concerned."