Recently-released Red Sox minor leaguer admits to rape in disturbing video

Recently-released Boston Red Sox minor leaguer Brad Netzer posted a disturbing and troubling video to social media on Thursday. 

TW: This story contains discussion of sexual assault

Weeks after forcing the Boston Red Sox to release him, former minor leaguer Brett Netzer returned to the public eye with an alarming YouTube video, in which he espoused bizarre religious opinions and admitted to raping a woman when he was in college.

In the 12-minute video (available on his Twitter, but we do not encourage viewing), which he marked as age-restricted, Netzer said that Christianity is “not true,” and announced that he has a new covenant with Judaism.

This comes after a series of antisemitic tweets from Netzer in February, including several directed at Red Sox President of Baseball Operations, Chaim Bloom, a religious Jew.

Brett Netzer admits on video to raping a woman in college

Netzer discussed Jesus, the idea of a Messiah, Moses, and quoted from Deuteronomy, before saying that since Christianity, Islam, and Mormonism had established their own covenants, he would be doing the same, but that in order to do so, he had to confess his worst sin:

"“My covenant says, in order to join my covenant, a person has to be willing to say publicly, acknowledge publicly the worst thing, the worst sin they have committed. That’s what you have to do to join my covenant, so I’ll go first.”"

Then, after a lengthy pause, Netzer continued,

"“I raped [name redacted*] my first year of college. I will not apologize to anybody. The details are between me and [name]. And that’s that. This is my way of acknowledging the worst in me, publicly, to show God that I fear him more than I fear any punishment that any human being could ever do to me. We don’t live in a world of man-made laws, we live in a world with the laws of Moses. That is the law, those laws are truth.I’ve lied, I’ve stolen, I’ve driven drunk, I’ve raped somebody. And that is, that’s me. That’s not the old me, that is me.”"

The admission is appalling, as is Netzer’s calm demeanor.

Netzer attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte before being drafted by the Sox in 2017. According to RAINN, “North Carolina has no statute of limitations for any felony sex crimes,” which means Netzer could still be subject to legal action.

Note: Netzer named the woman he assaulted, but we have redacted her name out of respect for her privacy.