Sad State of Affairs in the NFL

28. 28 Arrests this year. 28 Arrests this year of current NFL players. Take into account there have been 28 RECORDED Arrests and citations given this year, that doesn't count the guy(s) who got off sans police report, the Marvin Harrison's who have not yet been charged/called suspects, or the Matt Leinart's of the game who do things that negatively reflect on players and the NFL with no legal recourse. Again, I need to preface that this is THIS YEAR. In less than four an a half months, 19 weeks to be exact there have been 28, meaning, on average, more than one per week. In 2007 the number was 61, 2006 was 66. Over the past 279 weeks (2003-present) there have been 276 arrests on report. That breaks down to .989 arrests per week over the last 5+ years. And so far in 2008 we're on a 1.5 per week pace. Not a good sign.

In Tucson there is a local afternoon radio show on 1290 AM with former NFL-er Glenn Parker (former U of A Wildcat and member of my All-Arizona Football Team) who, at around 5:30 each day does the police blotter. The fact that a daily segment can be dedicated to athletes who are in trouble with the law is a sad state of affairs. Almost every time there is more than one athlete getting called out and 60% of the time at least one of them is a pro football player. This is ridiculous.

Everyone busts on the 'Nati for the amount of jailhousers that fill their roster but they aren't the only ones. Here's a little breakdown of arrests since January 2003.

Arizona: 2 (Larry Ned stole someone's laptop in an airport terminal)
Atlanta: 8 (Arrests range from Animal Abuse by Babineaux to Animal Abuse by Vick. Keep puppies away from Matt Ryan)
Baltimore: 8 (B.J. Sams, 2 DUIs in 14 months, Jamal Lewis and his Drug Trafficking charges are here as well)
Buffalo: 4 (Anthony Hargrove hit a cop)
Carolina: 6 (Jarrod Cooper does a double dip in 13 months, Jeremy Bridges pointed a gun at a female employee of a strip club a.k.a stripper)
Chicago: 11 (Tank Johnson leads team with 4, Benson still says he wasn't drunk and was mistreated)
Cincinnati: 19 (Chris Henry leads team with 6, A.J. Nicholson follows with 2, one for punching Girlfriend in the eye)
Cleveland: 8 (Ruben Droughns leads with 2)
Dallas: 4 (Dwayne Goodrich currently serving 12 years for Manslaughter)
Denver: 14 (5 Domestic Dispute/Assault arrests, Sam Brandon 3, Brandon Marshall 2)
Detroit: 6 (Stand up Gentleman Kalvin Pearson leading the list with felony aggravated battery on a pregnant woman and domestic battery by strangulation, Good Job A-Hole)
Green Bay: 6 (Joe Johnson appearing twice on the list. Mark Chumura's statutory rape/aggravated rape charge not included [2000])
Houston: 7 (Jerome Mathis arrested on charge of choking his common-law wife, afraid of commitment but not strangling his wife)
Indianapolis: 11 (No mention of Marvin Harrison fighting a guy who then got shot, with his gun, that was hidden at his car detailing shop, because he is not a suspect)
Jacksonville: 13 (4 of which were gun charges)
Kansas City: 11 (Jared Allen 2 DUIs, Larry Johnson 2 domestic Disputes, one allegedly involving a gun)
Miami: 11 (3 domestic disputes, Randy McMichael pulling a Kalvin Pearson by hitting his pregnant wife)
Minnesota: 24 (Sex Boat Scandal, Bryant McKinnie leads with 4, Koren Robinson - 3, AND they signed Jared Allen. Look out McKinnie someone's coming for your Team Lead)
New York Giants: 5 (Adrian Awasom leads the low-key G-men with his Extreme DUI 2 days before the Super Bowl, Nice job Eugene, at least it wasn't a prostitute)
New York Jets: 3 (2 DUI's and a misdemeanor Assault)
New England: 6 (Not including general bad person, homewrecker, blatent cheater Bill Belichick)
New Orleans: 5 (Not including Reggie Bush's USC indiscretions)
Oakland: 5 (only including Janikowski's most recent run-in, not including his 2 prior to 2003)
Philadelphia: 3 (Dhani Jones leads by being Charged with failure to obey a lawful command after allegedly refusing to stop dancing outside a South Beach club)
Pittsburgh: 9 (10 if you count the mascot getting a DUI in his costume)
San Diego: 11 (Leonardo Carson's arrest for kidnapping highlights the bolts)
San Francisco: 3 (Antonio Bryant highlights by getting a DUI after going over 100 mph on the freeway, REEEAAAAALLLLL SAFE there Antonio)
Seattle: 9 (4 domestic violence. Wayne Hunter puts the ASS in Assault for beating his Pregnant girlfriend)
St. Louis: 5 (Dominique Byrd arrested twice in 3 months)
Tampa Bay: 9 (Including, Michael Pittman's arrest for barricading his wife, 2 year old, and babysitter [who he also happened to take to our prom as a nice gesture 2 weeks prior] in a car by ramming it with his Hummer)
Tennessee: 16 (Pacman representing 6 of those)
Washington: 6 (4 were DUIs)

So there you have it, sure the Nasty Nati is a close second to Minnesota but they aren't the only ones on this list. 10 teams had double digit arrests in the last 3 years. Way too many (more than zero) involved women, specifically pregnant women which is inexcusable. 92, by my count, involved alcohol is some way, the majority of which were DUI or suspicion of DUI. Can't you afford a cab with that 6 digit income. Of course, in the instance of Todd Sauerbrun in December his arrests was for assault with his cab driver.

Also on the list were 30 arrests relating to Narcotics. There were, however, more than 20 since some of them were instead listed under the DUI/DWI list or in the Violence list since it fell in more than one. As for the violence list there were 73 arrests relating to some form of violence whether it was something minor like New England's Kenyatta Jones intentionally scalding his roommate with boiling water, but more of them were barroom brawls, nightclub fights, and wife/girlfriend beating. The remaining 75 cases ranged from the minor, refusing to leave a bar, public urination, to the major, manslaughter and kidnapping.

Some are more ridiculous than others like Santonio Holmes being cited along with 100s of others for disorderly conduct on Memorial Day weekend. Then of course there is Cedric Griffin who was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after being thrown out of nightclub for having his pants sag too low. But those are the minority. There are WAY more instances of these tough guys getting into fights, specifically when alcohol or apparently pregnant women are involved. 46 players were on the list at least 2 times in the last 5 years. Some were on 2 or more times but one fell prior to 2003 so their name did not make my lists/numbers. Not included in any of the numbers were former Pro-Bowlers Ricky Williams or Andre Rison Each with 3 arrests. Rison was arrested 3 times from February 2000 to August 2000. Once for false impersonation stating that his name was Officer Brock Middlebrook

I would like to think that Roger Goodell's crackdowns have made a difference but with 33 more weeks left in 2008, we're on pace to see a record high 74 arrests this year. This is not the way that things are supposed to be in the NFL. Part of the reason is the lack of (until recently) punishment by the NFL, but more blame has to be put on the cities where these transgressions are occurring. The fact that all of these guys are cited, released, and pay a fine a couple months later, does not deter them. Which is probably why there are so many people on this list twice. Sad State of Affairs.

Search through your favorite team/players to find out more about their indiscretions. A Number of these stats came from The San Diego Union Tribune, "Arrests/citations:NFL Players, 2000 - Present" <http://sports.uniontrib.com/sports/nfl/arrests.html>