In a long-overdue move, the NFL announced that college players with convictions for domestic violence and other violent crimes on their records will no longer be welcome at the league’s annual scouting combine, the weeklong event where prospects are evaluated before the draft by representatives from NFL teams. It will make it more difficult for players who have a rap sheet to get noticed by NFL scouts, general managers, and coaches.
NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent sent a memo to the league’s team presidents, general managers, and coaches informing them that all draft prospects must submit to a background check while registering for the scouting combine. If that background check turns up any felony or misdemeanor convictions “involving violence,” the prospect will be barred from “any league-related event”–including the combine. They will also be barred from attending the draft, though any team is still theoretically free to draft them. Anyone who refuses a background check will also be barred from attending the combine or the draft. At the combine, players participate in numerous physical drills, including the 40-yard-dash. They also undergo various mental tests.
The memo stressed that anyone who has a conviction for crimes that involve “the use of a weapon, domestic violence, sexual offense, and/or sexual assault” will not be welcome at the combine or the draft. Vincent wrote that this measure is necessary to show fans and the general public that “character matters.” This does not ban players with prior records from being drafted, and players banned from the combine can still take part in private workouts. However, in a day and age when off-the-field conduct is under greater scrutiny than ever, this will make it that much harder for someone with a violent crime on his record to convince teams to take a chance on him. More than ever, teams are taking players with shady pasts off their draft boards. This policy might cause a few players who are hanging by a thread to get crossed off altogether.
The new policy is only expected to ensnare a small percentage of the 300 or more players who attend the combine each year. The highest-profile player who would have been affected had this rule been in place would have been Frank Clark of the Seattle Seahawks. Michigan booted him off the team late in the 2014 season when he was arrested for beating up his girlfriend. He later pleaded guilty to lesser charges. Earlier, Clark pleaded guilty to home invasion for stealing a laptop from a dorm.
A number of players with dubious pasts, however, would not have been affected by this policy had it been in place. For instance, Aaron Hernandez, who is now serving life in prison for murder, fell off a lot of draft boards in 2010 due to concerns about marijuana use, though he was never convicted. Jameis Winston, despite the Sturm und Drang surrounding his domestic violence case, was never convicted of a crime.
Looking back, the highest-profile player in recent years who could have been barred from the combine under this policy would have been Richie Incognito, who gained infamy in 2014 for his bullying of Jonathan Martin while with the Miami Dolphins. Back in 2004, while he was still at Nebraska, Incognito was convicted of misdemeanor assault after getting in a fight at a party. Incognito had already been crossed off several teams’ draft boards because of his inability to control his temper.
This policy is at least two decades overdue. Frankly, it shouldn’t have taken the Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and Adrian Peterson incidents to make this move.
