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NFL mom says team tried to get her son to ‘control’ what she says about domestic violence

“I believed the hype. I even drank the sugar-free blueberry Kool-Aid. By Friday in London, I was spitting it up.”

Annie Apple with her son, Eli, before the 2016 NFL Draft. Eli was drafted by the New York Giants. CREDIT: Alyssa Schukar/AP Images for P&G
Annie Apple with her son, Eli, before the 2016 NFL Draft. Eli was drafted by the New York Giants. CREDIT: Alyssa Schukar/AP Images for P&G

A few weeks ago, Annie Apple, the mother of New York Giants cornerback Eli Apple, wrote candidly about the four years she spent in an abusive relationship in her late teens in her weekly Sports Illustrated column.

She was inspired to share her story after newly-released court documents showed the extent of Giants kicker Josh Brown’s abuse of his wife. Subsequent interviews revealed that the Giants had known about the abuse but re-signed Brown anyway.

This week, Apple blasted the team that employs her son for failing to reach out to her after her public disclosure, and for trying to use her 21-year-old son as a tool to silence her.

“[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,” she said. “That’s not fair.”

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The entire incident made Apple so angry that even though she traveled to London to watch the Giants play last Sunday, she flew back to the United States before the game began.

“At that moment I just couldn’t cheer for a team I felt had turned its back on what was right to protect an image. It was difficult because I love my son and I’ve always been in his corner at every game, but for me, this was bigger than a game,” she wrote.

Apple called opening up about her experience as a domestic violence survivor “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,” but said that sharing this part of her past was a “way of showing compassion and basic humanity to not just [Brown’s ex-wife Molly Brown] but all the other victims and survivors of this crisis.”

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She was particularly incensed when Giants owner John Mara told radio host Mike Francesca that long before the most recent court documents were released, Brown told the team that “he’s abused his wife in the past,” but “what I think is a little unclear is the extent of that.”

Apple called those comments by Mara “insensitive, dismissive, and callous.”

“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,” she said. “Mr. Mara owns the New York Giants. He doesn’t own Annie Apple.”

Eli, who is currently in his rookie season, told reporters after Apple’s initial column that his mother is “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,” Eli said. “My mom’s very vocal and that topic is very important to her, so I can understand where she was coming from.”

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But clearly, Apple — who refers to her son as “Black Eli” on social media and in her columns to differentiate him from Giants quarterback Eli Manning, who is white — feels the Giants pressured her son to silence her.

“When Black Eli got drafted, everyone raved about what a great organization the Giants are. I was proud,” she said. “I wanted my then 20-year-old son to go to a team that would help him grow not just his talents, but as a man and person. I believed the hype. I even drank the sugar-free blueberry Kool-Aid. By Friday in London, I was spitting it up.”