FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2012 file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez reacts during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass. State and local police spent hours at the home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on Tuesday June 18, 2013 as another group of officers searched an industrial park about a mile away where a body was discovered the day before. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2012 file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez reacts during the second quarter of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass. State and local police spent hours at the home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez on Tuesday June 18, 2013 as another group of officers searched an industrial park about a mile away where a body was discovered the day before. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)
FILE - In this Dec. 10, 2012 file photo, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez (81) holds his helmet as he steps onto the field before an NFL football game between the New England Patriots and the Houston Texans in Foxborough, Mass. State and local police spent hours at the home of Hernandez on Tuesday, June 18, 2013 as another group of officers searched an industrial park about a mile away where a body was discovered the day before. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
In this Tuesday, June 18, 2013 photo, state and local police gather outside the home of New England Patriot's NFL football player Aaron Hernandez in North Attleborough, Mass. Police spent hours at the home Tuesday as another group of officers searched an industrial park about a mile away where a body was discovered the day before. (AP Photo/The Sun Chronicle, Martin Gavin)
Massachusetts State Police dig for evidence Thursday, June 20, 2013, at the sight in an industrial park in North Attleborough, Mass., where the body of Odin Lloyd, of Boston, was found earlier this week. New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez had a connection Lloyd, but family and officials were mum on the nature of their relationship Thursday, two days after police visited Hernandez' home. (AP Photo/The Sun Chronicle, Mark Stockwell) MANDATORY CREDIT. MAGAZINES OUT.
Two members of the Massachusetts State Police walk toward the front door of the home of New England Patriot's NFL football player Aaron Hernandez in North Attleborough, Mass., Wednesday, June 19, 2013. Their knock on the door went unanswered. State and local police spent hours at the home Tuesday as another group of officers searched an industrial park about a mile away where a body was discovered the day before. (AP Photo/Erika Niedowski)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Roger Goodell is doing what any commissioner or president of a sports league would when one of his players is being investigated in a criminal case.
He's waiting for the legal process to take its course.
No charges have been filed in what has been termed by Massachusetts authorities as a homicide in the death of a man connected to New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez.
Police have searched Hernandez's house and the area around it after 27-year-old semi-pro player Odin Lloyd was found dead in an industrial park near the Patriot's North Attleborough home.
Hernandez also was sued Wednesday in Florida by a man claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after they argued at a strip club in February.
As he has done in recent cases, be they high profile ? Michael Vick and his dogfighting, for example ? or less publicized, Goodell is sitting tight. Innocent before proven guilty.
Should Hernandez be arrested ? no charges have been brought in either case ? Goodell could punish him under the NFL's personal conduct policy. But he generally prefers to await the outcome of all legal proceedings.
When Vick admitted to financing a dogfighting operation, Goodell suspended him indefinitely in August 2007. Vick served 18 months in a federal penitentiary, and was reinstated in 2009 when Goodell said the quarterback had shown remorse for his actions.
Vick has stayed out of trouble since and has played for the Philadelphia Eagles the last four years.
Goodell suspended cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones for the 2007 season under the personal conduct policy after Jones was arrested multiple times. A 2005 first-round draft pick by the Titans who now is with Cincinnati, Jones has been in and out of legal trouble, with at least seven arrests over the years and involvement in about a dozen incidents that included police intervention.
He recently pleaded not guilty to an assault charge after police say he hit a woman at a nightclub. If he is found guilty or accepts a plea bargain, he would be subject to another NFL suspension, perhaps an indefinite one.
"We must protect the integrity of the NFL," Goodell has said. "The highest standards of conduct must be met by everyone in the NFL because it is a privilege to represent the NFL, not a right. These players, and all members of our league, have to make the right choices and decisions in their conduct on a consistent basis."
Packers defensive lineman Johnny Jolly was suspended indefinitely by the NFL before the 2010 season for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Two years earlier, in April 2008, he'd been arrested outside a club in his hometown of Houston for possession of codeine, a controlled substance. He pleaded guilty and was given probation, with the understanding that another misstep would mean significant jail time.
He was arrested again in October 2010, and went to jail for violating probation. Goodell suspended him indefinitely and he has missed the last three NFL seasons, but attended Green Bay's minicamp earlier this month after being reinstated in March.
Associated Pressopm passover Florida Gulf Coast University Aaron Craft school closings ariana grande gonzaga
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.