None of us are perfect.
Everyone will do something at one point in their life that they aren't proud of, that they're ashamed of, that they wish had just never happened its a part of life that we'll all unfortunately go through. But when you're a household name making millions of dollars a year when you're the face of a professional sports team, and when you commit a crime so heinous that the public are thrown into uproar, things are a little different.
The NFL is no stranger to controversy.
In it's 95 year history, it's seen it's fair share of game fixing, off-field assault, drug abuse, negligence and death. It's a league built on staying quiet, a league where a fall from grace that would kill the normal individual gets you a 2 week ban and a slap on the wrists; it's a dinosaur and following the major events we've seen unravel this past year, there's no way that it can continue to plug it's ears and pretend like everything's gonna be fine. It's time for a serious change.
O.J. Simpson
In one of the most famous trials seen in America, Simpson was
acquitted of the murder of his wife Nicole and a waiter by the name of Ronald Lyle Goldman.
O.J. Simpson was a hugely talented running back predominantly for the Buffalo
Bills in the 1970s. It is the most high profile controversy featuring the NFL.
Simpson is currently serving time after a robbery in Las Vegas. T
“I Misinterpreted The Rules”
On September 9, 2007, NFL Security caught a New England Patriots video assistant video-taping the New York Jets defensive signals. Jets head coach Eric Mangini tipped off the league and almost overnight, Head Coach Bill Belickick became public enemy #1.
For spearheading the plan, he was personally fined $500,000 and narrowly avoided suspension. On top of this, The Patriots were fined $250,000 and stripped of their first round pick in the 2008 draft.
Belichick maintains that he ‘misinterpreted the rules', but league findings prove otherwise.
BULLYGATE
JONATHAN Martin left the Miami Dolphins midway through the 2013 season due to locker room bullying from fellow offensive linemen led by Richie Icognito, who was subsequently suspended and not re-signed. The incident exposed a culture of locker room behaviour in the NFL that critics called unprofessional at best and abusive at worst. Incognito has since been signed by the Bills.
RAY RICE SCANDAL
THE Baltimore Ravens running back was suspended for two games by the NFL in 2014 after he was arrested and charged with assaulting his then-fiancee; video showed him dragging her unconscious body out of a hotel elevator. When another video that showed Rice punching her was released, Rice was cut by the Ravens and the NFL suspended him indefinitely. The NFL botched its investigation and commissioner Roger Goodell was shamed into a public apology and forced to overhaul its domestic policy.
JOVAN BELCHER MURDER/SUICIDE
THE Kansas City Chiefs linebacker rocked the sports world in December 2012 when he killed his girlfriend, then drove to the Chiefs training facility and shot himself. The incident sparked national debate about gun laws, and Belcher's family had his body exhumed to have his brain studied. In 2014, a report was released stating that Belcher had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease that has been linked to head trauma and diagnosed in former NFL players.
Aaron Hernandez
After signing a five-year, $40 million contract extension with the New England Patriots, Aaron Hernandez had a spectacular fall from grace in June 2013, when his friend Odin Lloyd was fatally shot and his body dumped in an industrial park near the tight end's Massachusetts home. Hernandez was subsequently charged with first-degree murder and later indicted for a 2012 double-murder. He was quickly dropped by the Patriots and is currently in prison awaiting trial, facing life without parole.
Adam "Pacman" Jones
Adam "Pacman" Jones was suspended for the 2007 season, losing a total of $1.3 million in salary, for repeated violations of the NFL's personal conduct policy including an altercation in a strip club when he allegedly pulled a dancer off stage and attacked a security guard, who was later shot by a member of his entourage and paralyzed from the waist down. Jones was charged with one count of felony coercion, one misdemeanor count of battery and one misdemeanor count of threat to life. He later signed with the Dallas Cowboys but was again involved in an incident with his bodyguard at a Dallas hotel.
Aldon Smith
Aldon Smith of the San Francisco 49ers was arrested for DUI in 2012 and then received stab wounds that June when a fight broke out at his house party, during which two other people were shot. Next up was crash when he was allegedly under the influence of marijuana, and finally this year a bizarre event at Los Angeles airport when he allegedly told a TSA agent that he had a bomb.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER SUSPENSION
HE was never charged with a crime, but Pittsburgh's star quarterback was suspended for six games (reduced to four) in 2010 for violating the league's personal-conduct policy. Roethlisberger was investigated after being accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old female the second such accusation against him in a two-year period, which led to him being nicknamed ‘Rapelisberger' by critics. Big Ben was one of the league's most high-profile QBs, coming off a second Super Bowl title, and the NFL was forced to address his pattern of troubling off-field behaviour.
Chad Johnson
Chad Johnson and "Basketball Wives" star Evelyn Lozada's 2010 reality TV wedding was marred when the former wide receiver was arrested a month later for domestic battery for allegedly head-butting his new wife. Lozada quickly filed for divorce and Johnson avoided jail time with a year-long probation, but was fired by the Miami Dolphins in an embarrassing stand-off that aired on HBO's "Hard Knocks."
Dez Bryant
Dez Bryant's troubled childhood included his mother being arrested for dealing crack cocaine when he was 8. Their relationship remained volatile, and in July 2012 the Dallas Cowboys wide receiver was arrested after allegedly hitting her in the face during an argument. He later went through counseling and told a Dallas Men Against Abuse event, "I'm done with domestic abuse."
Donte Stallworth
After bouncing between teams as a wide receiver, Donte Stallworth's darkest hour came in March 2009 when he hit and killed a pedestrian while driving on a Miami Beach causeway in the early hours of the morning. Stallworth had a 0.12 alcohol level and tested positive for marijuana, leading to a charge of DUI manslaughter. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail, 1,000 hours of community service and eight years probation, along with settling a civil case with the victim's family.
Michael Vick
Michael Vick was implicated in an illegal interstate dog fighting ring that had operated for five years. The quarterback pleaded guilty in 2007 and served 21 months in prison for the crimes against canines at Bad Newz Kennels, and has since returned to the field with the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Jets.
Ray Carruth
Cherica Adams was eight months pregnant with Carolina Panthers' Ray Carruth's child when she was shot four times in her car, calling 911 and naming the wide receiver as the one of the assailants. After both Adams and the unborn baby died, Carruth fled police and went on the run, before finally being found hiding in the trunk of a car in Tennessee. He was later sentenced for murder but escaped the death penalty.
RAY LEWIS ARREST
THE Baltimore Ravens linebacker pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in connection with the still-unsolved murder of two men who were stabbed to death during a fight involving Lewis and his friends in Atlanta after Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000. Lewis was fined $250,000 by the NFL but never suspended. Critics still call Lewis a tainted legend; some call him worse.
Junior, Duerson & The Concussions Case
Junior Seau wasn't only a big personality, he was a hell of a player, which makes it exceptionally saddening that he shot himself on May 2, 2012. Seau had reportedly sustained a high number of concussions throughout his career and was dealing with severe depression and insomnia something that his family feel influenced his decision to take his life.
This was horribly similar to the suicide of former player Dave Duerson just over a year before, who had shot himself in the chest, requesting his brain be sent for analysis. Duerson was found to be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain injury sustained from years of taking knocks in the NFL.
These two tragic events (amid others) have led to the NFL accepting a degree of responsibility for brain damage cases and the creation of rules designed to reduce instances of concussion.
As of this year, a number of families of players affected by concussion and brain injuries are seeking reparations from the league.
Adrian Peterson
Few cases in recent years have come close to shocking the world to the level that the Adrian Peterson case has. Peterson was a model athlete, widely accepted as the best running back currently playing in the NFL and had the reputation of being an all-round good guy.
This all changed in the blink of an eye when he faced accusations that he had been disciplining his infant son by beating him with a switch, (essentially a sanded down cane).
Photographs emerged that showed slash like wounds across the back of his son's body. Peterson did not deny the allegations, instead immediately owning up to his actions. He stated that he firmly believed that he was just disciplining his son, claiming that this is the way that he himself was raised.
