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7 Seton Hall J. Sport L. 353 (1997)
The NFL and Domestic Violence: The Commissioner's Power to Punish Domestic Abusers

handle is hein.journals/shjsl7 and id is 359 raw text is: THE NFL AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: THE COMMISSIONER'S POWER TO PUNISH DOMESTIC ABUSERS By: Anna L. Jefferson* I. INTRODUCTION Fifty-six current and former football players and eighty-five college players were reported to the police for violent behavior toward women between January 1989 and November 1994.1 Do athletes tend to batter their mates more than non-athletes? Does the violent nature of football tend to invoke violent be- havior in the players toward their mates? Does there seem to be a prevalence of athletes among abusers? Or is it the media attention that creates an impression that this is a huge prob- lem in sports today?2 Many football players have been named in domestic vio- lence situations, including Warren Moon, 0. J. Simpson, Vance Johnson, Tim Barnett, Gerald Perry, and the much publicized, highly controversial Lawrence Phillips. Do stories of domestic violence hurt the public outlook on the integrity of the sport of football? Will fans not go to a game if players are named in a domestic violence incident? Will a domestic violence policy for punishing athletes help the overall domestic violence problem in this country? Domestic violence has become a critical social issue in America. The statistics are compelling: 8 to 12 million women a year are assaulted by their mates;4 thirty-five percent of wo- * B.S. 1991, Towson University (summa cum laude), J.D. 1997, University of Bal- timore School of Law (cum laude). Ms. Jefferson is an associate with the Baltimore, MD law firm of Lebau & Neuworth, LLC. 1. Bill Brubaker, Violence in Football Extends Off Field, TIM WASHINGTON POST Nov. 13, 1994 at Al, A24. 2. William Nack and Lester Munson, Sports' Dirty Secret, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, July 31, 1995, at 62 (the author posed similar questions). 3. See Brubaker, supra note 1; see also Nack, supra note 2; Brian Schmitz, Nothing Professional About NFL's Stand on Phillips, ORLANo SENTINEL, April 20, 1996 at C1 (author opines that the NFL ducks its head in the sand as so many others do when it comes to addressing domestic violence). 4. Nack, supra note 2 at 68. 353

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