3 NFL players who were caught being violent on tape
Football is a violent sport. Players are expected to leave that energy on the field and be model professionals off it, given the league's reach. That is not the case, however, especially regarding player violence outside work, mainly against women.
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The NFL has a domestic violence problem, and the league may not want to admit that. From 2000 to 2019, there were 94 arrests featuring 80 NFL or ex-NFL players. This is an extraordinary number and shows how simply the league, despite its denials, often turned a blind eye to the issue of domestic violence. It has taken visual evidence on tape multiple times before the NFL, and the team has taken action.
Here, we look at three players who were caught being violent on tape while they were still active in the NFL.
Got caught: NFL players show their violent side
#1 - Kareem Hunt
The Kansas City Chiefs drafted Kareem Hunt in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft. He had an astonishing rookie season when he led the NFL in rushing yards and was named to the Pro Bowl.
Perhaps looking at his performance, the Chiefs did not take any action on his supposed violent escapades off the field until a video was released in 2018.
The video showed him kicking a woman in a hotel the previous February. Upon the video's release, he was placed on the commissioner's exempt list and then cut from the team.
The Chiefs maintained Hunt had misled them. In the end, as the alleged victim did not properly take the case to court, he was never charged.
He currently plays with the Cleveland Browns, with the maximum punishment served by him amounting to an eight-game suspension in 2019.
#2 - Ray McDonald
Ray McDonald was a defensive end with the San Francisco 49ers from 2007 to 2014. He got into a host of problems where he was repeatedly accused of sexual harassment and domestic violence issues. When it emerged in 2014 that he was being investigated for sexual assault, he was let go.
NFL's Ray McDonald -- Terrifying Video In Domestic Violence Case dlvr.it/MzXK2c
But in 2015, the Chicago Bears took him on, only to let him go once he became embroiled in a domestic violence case. He has faced a litany of charges related to these issues, and his actions were finally captured in graphic detail. It was a violent video that made him pretty much a pariah.
#3 - Ray Rice
There can be no argument about the most consequential violent action caught on tape. With all the focus on domestic violence now in the NFL, in many ways, it was this video that kickstarted it all.
Ray Rice was drafted by the NFL in 2008 and played his entire career in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens as a running back. In 2014, a video showed him being violent towards his partner in an elevator. It showed him knocking her unconscious and dragging her out of the lift.
He was indicted on aggravated assault charges and was released by the Ravens. He was also suspended indefinitely by the NFL.
An appeal reinstated him but effectively ended his career. Even though he later apologized, it put a focus on the runaway instances of domestic violence in the NFL, and he never played another down.