According to U-T San Diego, there were more than 50 NFL players who were arrested in 2014. This certainly had its impact on the perception of the NFL in 2014. I will mention some players who are in that crowd and what needs to be done to clean up this mess that the NFL is in.
On September 17, Jonathan Dwyer was arrested in Arizona on aggravated assault charges in connection involving an 18-month-old child and a women.
Alan Branch of the Buffalo Bills was arrested on the morning of August 23 in a town named Cheektowaga after officers found out that Branch was vomiting on the driver’s side of his car. According to police, Branch failed a sobriety test after his blood alcohol content was .14 nearly twice the legal limit in New York state.
Cleveland Browns Wide Receiver Josh Gordon was hit with a DWI charge after being pulled over for speeding in North Carolina. Gordon’s BAC was .09% and just this week, he was suspended without pay for at least one year for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.
Greg Hardy of the Carolina Panthers was arrested on May 13 and was charged with assaulting a women and communicating threats to this person in North Carolina.
Davone Bess of the Cleveland Browns was arrested on January 17 for assaulting a law enforcement officer and resisting an officer at Ft. Lauderdale airport. He checked himself into a medical facility after being released from custody.
Fred Davis of the Washington Redskins was arrested in Fairfax County, Virginia on February 20 on suspicion of DUI. Whats interesting is that he was suspended indefinitely by the league the day before for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy.
Last but not least, Ray Rice then of the Baltimore Ravens was arrested in Atlantic City, New Jersey after an altercation with his fiancee at a casino. Furthermore, Rice was indicted by a grand jury on March 27 on one count of third-degree assault.
On September 8, TMZ released additional footage of Rice from an elevator in which he punched his fiancee. In the immediate aftermath, the Ravens terminated his contract and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced that he had been suspended indefinitely but was reinstated on November 28.
Jason LA Canfora of CBS sports says that if he was the commissioner, he would spend time with players who accomplished so much on and off the field. Furthermore being able to relate to players in a unique way and bring out the best in athletes off the field. Former NFL Cornerback Reggie Howard is currently the President and Executive Director of the United Athletes foundation. He recommends that Howard should be on a personal-conduct committee that hands out punishment to future offenders.
This isn’t limited to NFL players but many of these guys were told that no matter what they do, nothing bad could happen. Professional athletes also are given multimillion dollar contracts, which can prove to be detrimental to many of these athletes. Professional athletes need to be dealt how to manage their money in a much more responsible way and have a concept of the money they are about to receive. The big problem is the lack of concept that many athletes have when they get these huge contracts. Some athletes are under the impression that there is no way that you can go from having $100 million to being broke and lets hope that athletes who have ideas of doing this will say no.
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