After Unsteady Steps to Punish Domestic Violence, N.F.L. Faces Scrutiny Again

Police documents released Wednesday showed that the player, kicker Josh Brown, wrote about being “physically, verbally and emotionally” abusive to his wife. The team took him off its active roster on Friday, and the league suspended him indefinitely with pay.

Brown made the comments in emails and journal entries as part of a marriage counseling exercise that was included in the investigative file compiled by the police in King County in Washington, where Brown was arrested on a domestic violence charge in May 2015. Brown and his wife have since divorced, and prosecutors declined to bring charges.

Both the Giants and the league are reviewing how they handled the situation, asserting that they did not learn the full details until the police files were released Wednesday, closing the legal case.

The league investigation by the former prosecutor, Lisa Friel, bumped up against the refusal by the police to release details of the case until it was closed. The player’s ex-wife also declined to cooperate.

But the fallout from the case points to the league’s scattershot approach to deciding whether a player should be suspended, and for…

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