“Randy Gregory was disciplined for misconduct against women,” Chris Russo makes a BASELESS accusation against the former Cowboy: First Take explained
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Randy Gregory and Chris Russo
ESPN First Take is one of the highest-rated sports shows featuring analyst Stephen A Smith as the permanent host and in addition to that, there are guest analysts who appear and debate on the show. Chris Russo or as he is more popularly known as Mad Dog is one of them, apart from that we see NBA players JJ Reddick and Patrick Beverly amongst others. The debates tend to get heated and intense at times and as a result, the analysts tend to slip their tongue and make a statement that may not be true or that can be misinterpreted easily.
The same happened to Chris Russo, who put the NFL on blast when he accused them of not doing enough to curb acts of misconduct from their players. He was speaking on the situation with Deshaun Watson, who is currently facing 24 civil suits from massage therapists who claimed that he misbehaved with them on the pretext of getting a therapeutic massage. Russo brought in the former Cowboys and now the Denver Broncos OL, Randy Gregory into this conversation, which led to many believing that he is accusing him of misbehaving with women.
“The NFL is reactive, not proactive”: Chris Russo on the NFL’s handling of the Deshaun Watson situation
Chris Russo was speaking on the NFL not taking an active stance against Deshaun Watson, the league has been telling that it is still investigating the matter and that once that is done, they will determine the quantum of punishment. Most spectators have the punishment pegged at a suspension for one season, which many believe is not enough but that is a whole another topic.
Russo decided to bring up examples of other leagues such as the MLB when Trevor Bauer was faced with similar allegations, the league took immediate action and first put him on administrative leave where he got paid for over a year, once the criminal proceedings concluded and the Police department completed their investigation, the court decided to acquit him. The MLB, however, was strict and suspended him for two years almost immediately.
Chris brought up the example of Randy Gregory, the former OL of the Dallas Cowboys who got in trouble with the league office due to a case of substance abuse. He was just showing that the league is slow to take action in cases that involve severe allegations but is quick in cases of substance abuse. However, the way that Chris Russo put it, made it sound like Randy Gregory was earlier punished for allegations of misconduct against women. “Why is the NFL, year after year after year always reactive instead of proactive? Ray Rice, Randy Gregory…” was the statement that he made.
Gregory has been suspended by the NFL four times for violating the league’s substance abuse policy, however, to avoid any legal trouble, First Take issued a clarification with respect to this matter.
The host of the show, Molly Qerim Rose clarified that “Christopher mentioned past examples of players and included defensive end Randy Gregory and although Chris did not say this, it could have left the impression with some viewers that the NFL disciplined Gregory for allegations similar to those against Watson. I want to make it very clear that Gregory’s suspensions stem from violating aspects of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy and had nothing to do with any misconduct against women.”
It is understandable that things tend to get heated up and given the severity of the Deshaun Watson situation it is natural for anyone to get passionate on this topic and let their emotions get the best of them, it is good on First Take’s part that they set the record straight.
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Sumedh Joshi
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