NFL player arrests and citations beyond speeding tickets are at their lowest for any year since 2000, according to newspaper databases tracking those figures, after a revised personal-conduct policy.
Only 35 NFL players have run afoul of the law this year, and just two since the NFL season began in September, according to USA Today and the San Diego Union-Tribune. That is less than half the 71 players from 2006 and below the lows of 39 from 2000 and 2004.
“We are encouraged by this progress, but understand we have more work to do,” NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. “It is a positive reflection on the players and our educational, preventative and deterrence programs.”
‘REAL DARK PLACE’
Changes came in the wake of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocking out his future wife, Janay, in an Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino elevator — the video footage of which became a sports news staple and led to Rice being dropped and unsigned by any team in the NFL, although many could use a talented, rested and experienced 29-year-old rusher.
“I went to a real dark place,” Rice said on the Dan Patrick radio show on Thursday, calling it a “nightmare.”
“We had been drinking. It was a long night. It just was one of those situations... I am a better man than that. It was the worst decision of my life,” he added.
Rice said he mentors in New Jersey, but wants to return to the NFL, adding that he sensed there might be a chance earlier in the season, but as the campaign has run to its final weeks, he sees less chance.
“You feel ashamed, you feel embarrassed. There were people out there that took a different approach, like I was a different person. It gave me hope,” Rice said.
Rice’s fate might also have provided NFL players with an object lesson about what will not be tolerated.
“My wife and I still have to live the rest of our life. In February, we will be two years removed from the incident. It feels like yesterday,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier