With public pressure building, New York Giants co-owner John Mara finally decided to address the Josh Brown situation on Wednesday.

Speaking to a pool of reporters in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Mara said the Giants were fully aware of the domestic violence accusations against Josh Brown and his potential suspension when he was re-signed to a two-year, $4 million deal in the offseason.

“I wanted to address the Josh Brown situation. When we made the decision to re-sign Josh back in [2016], we were certainly aware of the arrest. We were also aware of the allegations associated with that arrest, and the fact that the charges were dropped within a couple days after the arrest,” Mara said on Wednesday (via the New York Daily News).

“Based on the facts and circumstances that we were aware of at that time, we were comfortable with our decision to re-sign him. Nothing has happened in the meantime to make us question that decision. This is an issue, domestic violence, that we take very seriously here. Everybody in this building — players, employees alike — go through a training program on issues like domestic violence and sexual abuse and DUI.”

Mara, who admits he should have spoken publicly sooner, said the Giants “did their homework” on the situation and were comfortable re-signing Brown based on what they uncovered during their investigation. And while he acknowledges it would have been easier to sign another kicker, Mara says he was “trying to be fair” to Brown and not allow the potential outcry to ruin his career unjustly.

“We’re comfortable with the decision,” Mara added (via The Star-Ledger). “We had a lot of facts and circumstances that were presented to us. We looked at all of those things. This is an organization that always tries to do the right thing. I don’t know if we always get it done, but we try. We did our homework here. We got as many of the facts and circumstances in front of us as we could, and we made the determination.”

As it relates to Molly Brown’s accusation that the Giants’ lawyers covered up a blackmail attempt, Mara vehemently denies that ever occurred, calling it “completely ridiculous.”

“That’s ridiculous. That’s completely ridiculous,” Mara said. “Absolutely not.”

While Mara’s comments won’t put this issue to bed, it is a step in the right direction. And it’s good to see Mara stand up and point out that accusations do not immediately equal guilt despite the court of public opinion.