The new era of NFL discipline isn't so new
A new study found undermines the idea that the NFL overhauled the way it treats players said to have committed crimes against women.
The night the Seahawks won their first playoff game in 30 years, one of the team’s starters was arrested after a fight with his girlfriend outside a Seattle night club.
This was January 2006 and he spent two days in jail before he was arraigned in court and charged with a gross misdemeanor. He played the following Sunday in a blowout victory at Carolina and started in Seattle’s first Super Bowl.
I’m not using names here, but that’s not because it’s any sort of secret. The case was widely reported on. I’m not trying to relitigate what happened, though, or re-examine the specific actions of anyone involved in this case. I am interested in the question of how the NFL would handle it if that same scenario happened today? How about the Seahawks?
My initial reaction: It would be very different. The NFL overhauled its policy when it came to players suspected of violence against women in 2014. This was after its initial punishment of Ray Rice was shown to be dramatically out of step with the severity of his offense. While the cases involving Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein involve sexual predation — not domestic violence — they’ve shown the ways in which wealth and fame can empower sexual predators, and the #MeToo movement has made it increasingly clear just how frequently women are abused.
It's tempting to say that we’ve gotten better at protecting the vulnerable or punishing perpetrators or at least shown some sign of being more accountable or more responsible or just not quite so horrible as before, but I think this may be more about how we want to feel as opposed to the reality of the situation.
Because in doing some research for a story I’m working on about Deshuan Watson, I came across a peer-reviewed study by a criminologist, which was published back in May. And by “came across a peer-reviewed study” I mean I read a New York Times story by Jenny Vrentas that referenced the study. The study concluded that being arrested or charged for violence against women had minimal impact on the career trajectory of an NFL player so long as the player was at least average. I found it pretty shocking.