Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Introducing The Lead

Episode Date: September 18, 2019

From The Athletic and Wondery, The Lead is the first daily sports podcast that will bring you one big story from The Athletic's all-star team of local and national sports reporters to make you the most knowledgeable sports fan in any room. Subscribe now to hear new episodes of the Lead each weekday morning: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lead/id1478448344 Check out theathletic.com/thelead to read stories featured on The Lead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All right, guys, got some really exciting news. Our team here at The Athletic and our friends at Wondery just launched a brand-new daily sports show called The Lead that we know you're going to love. The Lead is the first daily sports news podcast that will cover everything from the world stage to the hometown. With the help of The Athletic's more than 400 sports writers and editors, co-hosts Kavitha Davidson and Anders Kelto

will bring you sports news up close and personal each weekday morning. You're about to hear a preview of The Lead. Subscribe to The Lead on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening right now so you don't miss another episode. There's also a link in the episode notes that will take you there. And check out theathletic.com slash The Lead to Last week, some major news rocked the NFL. New allegations overnight against NFL star Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown has been accused of rape in a new lawsuit. In the suit filed in the Southern District of Florida, the 28-year-old claims Brown sexually assaulted her on three occasions in 2017 and 2018. The accusations against Brown came just days after he joined the New England Patriots.

But despite those accusations, Brown played for the Patriots on Sunday. Antonio Brown, the newest Patriot, plunging into the stands in his hometown. And then just yesterday, new accusations emerged. And another allegation of sexual misconduct from an artist he hired to paint a portrait of him. Now the NFL and the Patriots need to figure out exactly what to do with Antonio Brown. what to do with Antonio Brown. Today, we're going to speak with The Athletic's Lindsay Jones about how the NFL has dealt with cases like this in the past and what that history tells us about the present. I'm Kavitha Davidson.

It's Tuesday, September 17th, and this is The Lead. It felt like something great was happening. There was just something about the emotion and that fun. You gotta go faster, faster! The failures of the past don't matter because we've got this now. I have never seen anything like this. This isn't a story where you interview the athlete and go home. It stays with you.

When you go home, it stays with you. So, Lindsay, everyone is talking about Antonio Brown right now. For those who aren't so firmly embedded in the NFL, can you just explain how big of a story this is? We've had a lot of kind of massive stories when it involves stars and their off field behavior. But this one is right up there because Antonio Brown is one of probably the top five players in the NFL. I mean, you could argue based on position and positional value and all of these sorts of things. But this is a major story that's going to really test a lot of the things that the NFL says that it stands for right now in terms of player behavior and personal conduct policy when it comes to one of its very biggest stars. Right. Like this isn't just any player. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is one, a very high profile player. I mean, he's very out there on his social media. He's one of the highest paid wide receivers. And he's been an all pro for year after year after year. So he's a very good player with a very high profile.

And the Antonio Brown story was already bizarre, which we'll get into a little later. But now it's taken a complete left turn with him being accused of sexual assault. How how has the league dealt with serious accusations like this in the past? You know, NFL players were not really penalized very harshly for their behavior off the field in previous eras. It was kind of a system of we're going to let law enforcement deal with this. So if guys weren't convicted, if they weren't even arrested, then the NFL wasn't going to punish them. All of that changed, though, five years ago with the Ray Rice incident. Ray Rice was seen on video dragging his unconscious fiance, now wife, out of an elevator.

Ray Rice was a starting running back for the Baltimore Ravens. He won a Super Bowl with the Ravens. And in 2014, he was arrested and indicted on a domestic violence charge, ended up getting a two-game suspension from the NFL. And then later, there was further video that was released. A vicious punch, a woman unconscious, a football player under fire, and all the signs of an NFL cover-up. TMZ uncovered video from inside the elevator that showed Ray Rice knocking out his fiance. And when that video came out, there was just massive backlash. I think the way the NFL handled this was awful. It was outrageous.

Literally tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of fans outraged. The commissioner, Roger Goodell, and his staff realized that they had to do something. And so what they did was completely overhaul their personal conduct policy, especially in regards to domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. that Roger Goodell has ultimate authority to discipline players really however he chooses, regardless of what a court might say or what the criminal justice system might have determined in a similar case. And the commissioner uses that authority through something called the commissioner's exempt list. We hear this term thrown around often in cases like this. What exactly is the commissioner's exempt list? Basically, the NFL's version of administrative leave,

where it's taking that player off the field. He will still be paid, but he will not be able to play while the rest of the investigation proceeds. And they're saying, we're going to make this disciplinary decision at this point to place him on this paid leave. We're not letting the team handle it. You will not be making this decision whether or not this guy who's accused of a crime is going to make this disciplinary decision at this point to place him on this paid leave. We're not letting the team handle it. You will not be making this decision whether or not this guy who's accused of a crime is going to play. We, the league, are going to make that decision. To hear the rest of the episode, listen and subscribe to The Lead on Apple Podcasts

or wherever you're listening right now.