New NFL discipline policy

[acmeanvil49]

Associated Press

NEW YORK - NFL commissioner Roger Goodell could announce new initiatives Tuesday that will allow him to impose harsher and quicker discipline for players who get into trouble off the field.

Goodell could use his first full league meeting, to be held next week in Phoenix, to address the arrests and other off-field episodes that plagued the league in the last year.

They include the arrests of nine members of the Cincinnati Bengals; 10 encounters with the police by Tennessee's Adam "Pacman" Jones; the four-month jail sentence imposed this week on Chicago's Tank Johnson on weapons charges; and other run-ins with the law by NFL players.

The full revised player-conduct policy is expected to be in place before the April 28-29 draft.

So does anyone have an opinion on this new policy?
Will this work to curb the bad behaviour?

By Jeff Benedict, Special to SI.com

What's behind this most recent rash of violence among highly paid athletes? The crime scenes shed light on a dirty little secret that's dragging the image of pro sports into the gutter. An examination of police and published reports revealed that all of the aforementioned incidents took place at a strip club or a nightclub, between the hours of midnight and 5 a.m.

"It's a cliché, but there's nothing but trouble [early] in the morning," says Los Angeles Clippers center Elton Brand. "You have to know your surroundings. There are places that you know will be no problem, [like] a nice restaurant or nice upscale lounge. There are other places that you know have a track record. You know that you don't need to go there."

While writing Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, I worked with law enforcement officials across the U.S. in performing criminal background checks on more than 500 NFL players from the 1996-97 season. We discovered that 21 percent of them had been formally charged (arrested or indicted) with a serious crime. Many of the cases I examined involved female victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Players with a history of hanging out in strip clubs and pursuing sexual encounters with groupies or prostitutes were often the ones who ultimately ended up facing criminal charges of sexual assault.

At the time, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello downplayed the findings in Pros and Cons. "We think we have a pretty good handle on what our players are involved in -- the good and the bad," Aiello said. "This book is going to portray half of our players as a group of criminals and I don't think there is any way that we are going to be able to change that."

In 2003 I performed a similar investigation for my book Out of Bounds: Inside the NBA's Culture of Rape, Violence and Crime. This time I checked the criminal history of nearly 200 NBA players and found that 40 percent of the players from the 2001-02 season had been the subject of a formal criminal complaint for a serious crime. NBA Commissioner David Stern disputed these statistics. "The percentage is a fabrication," Stern said at the time. "There is a difference in being convicted of a crime and being accused of one."

Says Upshaw, "By no means am I trying to say we don't have bad apples. Every orchard has bad apples. But what I'm saying is don't paint all of our 1,900 with the same brush."

Part of the problem is that too many high-profile players continue to enter what ought to be a forbidden zone. In 1999 the FBI raided the infamous Gold Club, an Atlanta strip club known for catering to pro athletes. Dozens of athletes from the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball were implicated in the case as recipients of illegal sexual favors. No athletes were indicted. But some received subpoenas ordering them to testify. The X-rated admissions of big-time stars such as Patrick Ewing should have sent a powerful signal to the leagues that some of their stars were playing a dangerous game off the field.

To their credit, the NFL and the NBA provide lots of advantages to insulate their players from trouble. But at some point it's up to the individual to make common sense choices. "The NBA will send security guys with you on the road or even at home if you need it," says Brand. "You can have one all the time. But to me, if I need to go somewhere with a security guard, that's somewhere I don't need to go."
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...tes/index.html

21% of the NFL and 40% of the NBA formally charged (arrested or indicted) with a serious crime or subject of a formal criminal complaint for a serious crime.

Could you imagine if that was 40% of our police officers or 21% of our school teachers.

[aesop]

That last statistic is a load of crap.

[Dolfan32323]

Well I am all for discipline but if it happens off the field I believe then the situation falls into the hands of the authorities and the court, not the NFL.

[Mari0k]

I hink it is BS...plus..what exactly is "sirious crime" Heck..some ppl ma think not paying a parkin ticket is a sirious crime.

[dolpns13]

I am 100% for it...Repeated offenders ruin the look of the league. Its obvious that because these repeated offenders continue to get into trouble, the law, which works to rehabilitate people, is inept at rehabilitating NFL players. I think that this is because the players have the money to get into trouble. The players represent the NFL and also are role models for youth, therefore, the NFL should get involved because its obvious the law cannot rehab these players. Maybe they will make better decisions if they know their livelyhood is at stake

[acmeanvil49]

That last statistic is a load of crap.

Why?

I couldnt comfirm how thorough Jeff Benedict of SI.com is but I would think before he just threw a statistic like that in a book and tarnished his reputation as a writer and jepordize his potential future earnings he did a large ammount of research to come up with those statistics.

If he puts some bogus information in a book wouldnt that hurt his potential income in the future if someone was to check up on his claim....like his publisher or any number of readers of the book or the NBA or the NFL to disclaim him?

[PyroDOLFAN]

Originally Posted by dolpns13

I am 100% for it...Repeated offenders ruin the look of the league. Its obvious that because these repeated offenders continue to get into trouble, the law, which works to rehabilitate people, is inept at rehabilitating NFL players. I think that this is because the players have the money to get into trouble. The players represent the NFL and also are role models for youth, therefore, the NFL should get involved because its obvious the law cannot rehab these players. Maybe they will make better decisions if they know their livelyhood is at stake

Yea That, I agree.

[PyroDOLFAN]

Originally Posted by aesop

That last statistic is a load of crap.

Do Tell?

[acmeanvil49]

Well the claims are out there and I would tend to believe them unless someone has evidence to dispute it because it's in the news constantly.

The Bengals
Pacman Jones
Tank Johnson
Joey Porter
Lionel Gates

I could find more but we have all read and seen the stories.

Today's football hero may be tomorrow's inmate. So contend authors Jeff Benedict and Don Yaeger in a controversial study, Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, published by Warner Books.

According to Benedict and Yaeger, 21 percent of NFL players -- more than one in five -- have been charged with at least one serious crime, including two murder arrests, seven rape charges, 45 counts of domestic violence and 42 charges of assault and battery.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...14/ai_53409148

NFL CRIME BLOG
http://www.nflcrimes.blogspot.com/

[aesop]

Originally Posted by PyroDOLFAN

Do Tell?

Um... 40% of the NBA has been convicted or arrested? Please. That's just an absurd number. Where is his source?

[MR NFLFAN]

Originally Posted by acmeanvil49

So does anyone have an opinion on this new policy?
Will this work to curb the bad behaviour?



21% of the NFL and 40% of the NBA formally charged (arrested or indicted) with a serious crime or subject of a formal criminal complaint for a serious crime.

Could you imagine if that was 40% of our police officers or 21% of our school teachers.

If the NFL eliminated the Bengals that number would fall dramatically....probably to less than 2%.

[aesop]

Interesting, I didn't realize the Bengals had over 19% of the NFL on their team.

[Chavez Ravine]

I think it should be implemented like the drug policy.

Everyone gets a freebee

after that the penalties start kicking in.

[Dolphin39]

Originally Posted by dolpns13

I am 100% for it...Repeated offenders ruin the look of the league. Its obvious that because these repeated offenders continue to get into trouble, the law, which works to rehabilitate people, is inept at rehabilitating NFL players. I think that this is because the players have the money to get into trouble. The players represent the NFL and also are role models for youth, therefore, the NFL should get involved because its obvious the law cannot rehab these players. Maybe they will make better decisions if they know their livelyhood is at stake

Well said, and I couldn't agree more!

[acmeanvil49]

The author says he worked with police preforming 500 background checks on NFL players & 21% had been arrested & charged with a crime.

While writing Pros and Cons: The Criminals Who Play in the NFL, I worked with law enforcement officials across the U.S. in performing criminal background checks on more than 500 NFL players from the 1996-97 season. We discovered that 21 percent of them had been formally charged (arrested or indicted) with a serious crime. Many of the cases I examined involved female victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Players with a history of hanging out in strip clubs and pursuing sexual encounters with groupies or prostitutes were often the ones who ultimately ended up facing criminal charges of sexual assault.
- Jeff Benedict, SI.com