Yesterday, April 15, 2015, Aaron Hernandez was convicted of murder in the killing of Odin Lloyd. Just three years ago, Aaron Hernandez signed a five year contract worth $40 million to continue his career as a tight end for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. Although this is the most severe, it is just one of many major legal incidents involving NFL players in the past few years. Ray Rice punched his now wife in a nightclub elevator, getting him cut from his team and a one year ban from the league. Adrian Peterson hit his child for disciplinary reasons, getting him a one year ban from the league. Greg Hardy assaulted and threatened to kill his girlfriend, but the charges were dropped. Just a few months ago, the Dallas Cowboys signed Hardy to a one year contract worth $11 million, a very controversial move. All these major legal incidents taint the NFL’s image and brand.

The signing of Hardy by the Dallas Cowboys proves that NFL teams are willing to risk their image, and much more, to help their team win. In my opinion, the league is always going to have these type of issues, because of the type of person that excels at the game of football. Football is a rough sport, you need someone who is literally willing to go out and break bones, or have their own brain damaged. You must be a very violent person to be willing to do those things. Many NFL players have the ability to turn this violence off when they are not out on the field, but for the league’s image, all that matters is the small minority that can’t turn off their violence switch. In fact, the players previously mentioned account for only .24% of players on NFL rosters at any point during the season. That is a very minuscule amount, which begs the question: Does the NFL really have a violence problem? What do you think? 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-hernandez-guilty-analysis-20150416-story.html#page=1