The #Browns fans who set up the crass massage table display in the parking lot before yesterday's game basically can't be banned or face any real punishment by the team. Why? This is an actual First Amendment issue.
The lot where the display was set up is owned by the City of Cleveland. Even if Browns found the display offensive, those fans have 1A protections since the symbolic speech occurred on government-owned land. Source tells @FOS any punishment would be "difficult" to carry out.
While the City of Cleveland does own FirstEnergy Stadium as well, the team and city officials have much more sway to enforce offensive speech. Here's a look at those provisions:
Interestingly, one of the people who posted the pics has deleted their Twitter. While the team's hands could be tied, you can still face consequences for speech. @USConst_Amend_I
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BREAKING: The former head of Mississippi’s welfare agency entered into a plea agreement with federal and state prosecutors — a huge turn in the scandal that could spell major trouble for Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. documentcloud.org/documents/2267…
Mississippi DHS director John Davis agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as part of the deal. He was a conduit for the alleged embezzlement of welfare funds that implicate former Gov. Phil Bryant, Favre and nonprofit boss Nancy New.
This is a text from Bryant to New about Favre.
All told (as @MSTODAYnews has wonderfully reported over the last many months), there were more than $77 million of misspent welfare funds as part of the alleged scheme.
Mississippi is the poorest state in the nation.
NEW: Two companies that have deals with Brett Favre have quietly scrubbed the Hall of Fame QB from their sites as the allegations related to his connection to an alleged welfare fraud scheme in Mississippi continue to roll out. My @FOS story. frontofficesports.com/brands-are-qui…
None of the four companies that have deals with Favre got back to me. That includes SiriusXM, which has MANY messages from me over the last week.
Copper Fit has had a deal with Favre for 8 years. It's still running ads, featuring Favre on its site. copperfitusa.com/pages/about-us…
.@CongressmanRaja: “For seven months, the Committee has been stonewalled by NDAs and other tools to evade accountability. Mr. Snyder and Mr. Goodell need to appear before the Committee to address these issues and answer our questions about the pervasive workplace misconduct."
The hearing is scheduled to take place June 22 and is described by Congress as "the next step in the Committee’s months-long investigation into the Commanders’ hostile workplace culture and will also examine the NFL’s handling of allegations of workplace misconduct."
UPDATE: Legislators in Virginia table Washington Commanders stadium bill on eve of expected vote, @FOS has confirmed. VA Stadium Authority bill could still come to the floor at a later date. (h/t @EricFlackTV) frontofficesports.com/fate-of-washin…
The Commanders' hopes for a stadium authority bill are at the mercy of legislators when it comes to scheduling. The agreement on the state budget took months, but there are several bills that had been sidetracked by those budget negotiations.
BREAKING: Anthony Brennan III, 60, has been arrested on three counts of second-degree assault related to the incident in Maryland where Brennan (allegedly) got off his bike an yanked #GeorgeFloyd flyers from a child and assaulted two others per @ParkPolice.
Video of the incident (if you’re among the three people who missed it).
BREAKING: The NTSB has opened the investigative docket for Hall of Fame pitcher Roy Halladay's fatal plane crash from Nov. 2017. Among the findings, were the injuries Halladay was dealing with before the crash and a detailed account of all the drugs in his system.
Of note:
Harry Leroy Halladay Jr. (Halladay's father) told the NTSB he was "concerned that Roy was abusing prescription medications, and that may have played a role in the accident. ... Roy was enrolled in an in- house detox program for an addiction to Lorazepam."
"Mr. Halladay talked to Roy when he received the new A5 about three weeks prior to the accident, and he asked him “what is the situation with medication? You cannot mix that with flying.” Roy said that he wasn’t taking any medication."