National Felony League?

Lest anyone should fall under the perception that the recent (2014), highly publicized spate of abuse of women (Ray Rice) and children (Adrian Peterson) has served as a corrective to National Football League player misbehavior, a short article in the New York Times on February 4 provides a clue to the contrary. As one of the paper's Sports Briefing entries for that day, the Times cites the case of Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle being charged -- for the second time in less than four months -- with suspicion of marijuana possession. Immediately following that entry is another noting the arrest of Packers defensive tackle Letroy Guion on felony charges of possession of marijuana and a firearm (along with a bag in his truck containing $190,000 in cash!). Directly beneath that item appeared yet another, citing Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson being charged with assault after an argument over a parking space.

In case you think the NFL was merely having another of its increasingly common "bad weeks," consider that in the new year 2015, through the date of those incidents on February 3, there had already been a total of eight arrest incidents involving NFL footballers. Beyond the three noted above, there were charges for domestic violence and battery, reckless driving, running a stop sign and open carrying of a firearm, rape and confinement leading to bodily injury and battery, and drunken driving. Happy New Year, NFL fans -- your favorite players are still up to their old, lovable shenanigans!

By the way, for those who might be interested in learning more about NFL arrest records, there is the wonderful NFL Arrests Database maintained by U-T (Union-Tribune) San Diego. Dating back to the year 2000, this database catalogs 718 arrest-related incidents while offering the "disclaimer" that there are likely more that were never reported by the media.