Here's an Interesting List of NFL Players Who Have Been Arrested.

[MineralMan]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/arrests/

It contains 730 records of arrest. Some are for serious crimes. Some are for minor infractions. It's worth looking at to see just how much coddling goes on in the NFL of their highly-paid players. It's good that USA Today has compiled this data, so we can all look at it for ourselves.

[mythology]

1. Doing the rough math I was surprised that the percentage of NFL players arrested

wasn't all that much higher than the general public. Granted that doesn't account for the higher socio-economic status of football players than the general public, but I was still surprised.

There were 12,408,899 arrests in 2011 according to the FBI. There was a note that it didn't include traffic violations, which DUI is not be included under. Given that there are about 300,000,000 people in the U.S. that's an arrest rate of about 4.13%

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested

There are roughly speaking 2000 men who play NFL football any given year. This number is actually low as it only counts the 53 players on the roster and the 10 on the practice squad not accounting for players being signed and cut throughout the season or players in the injured reserved list. But given 63 players per team and 32 teams, I used 2016 as the number of NFL players per year.

Over the 5 years, there were on average 146 arrests giving an arrest rate of 7.24% Given that number is certainly higher than it should be based on not being able to determine the exact number of players in any given year and that by definition all NFL players are not minors or the elderly, two groups less likely to be arrested, and all men, I would have thought the gap would be higher.

I am kind of amazed at the number of players arrested for drunk driving given that the NFL Players Association has a program where players can call and get a ride anonymously. Of course, drunk people may not make the best decisions.

[Johonny]

3. David Stern always pointed out NBA players don't commit crimes at a higher rate

than the general young male population of this country so it isn't that big a surprise. There is the theory athletes get off lighter in their sentencing than the general population, although, you could argue the wealthy in general (I.E. people with access to the tools of the judicial system) tend to be treated better in the court system than the poor.

So why are athletes hammered on more for their crimes than say Businessmen, politicians, and other famous people?


There are a lot of theories but no one answer is likely the right one.

A) envy B) because they are seen as role models C) Greater percentage are minority than the general public D) The number of professional and amateur press that cover sports is HUGE E) actual concern F) Other.

The fact is that sports do draw a lot of coverage so even if athletes don't commit crimes at egregiously high rates compared to us all there is still a reason to target sports to help get attention to societal problems. Sporting agencies have slowly begun to embrace the idea over the past few decades with conduct policies and drug programs. They aren't perfect (or perhaps even good at present) but if you're NOW and you want to highlight domestic violence then sports with its saturated press coverage is a great place to get a working relationship with the leadership even if you had to force your way in. I doubt advocacy agencies are going to walk away from pressing sport agencies on these issues. To the credit of sporting agencies they do appear to be more and more willing to take a lead role on this even if almost all the crimes are taking place outside the confines of the work day and work place.

Should we turn to corporate America to "solve" our social justice problems... should we have so much press coverage of grown adults playing kids game?

[mercuryblues]

2. a couple

on there are repeat offenders.

So many DUI's. With their money they should hire drivers when they go out to clubs.

[indepat]

4. The prominent monied must feel their oats and so privileged

[morningfog]

5. The coddling comes after the fact. The problem is the brain damage the game causes.

The hits cause brain damage that makes them more likely to be violent and less able to control their impulses and anger.