Chris Thorman of Arrowhead Pride, the Kansas City Chiefs blogger for SB Nation, passed around a link to a story done by the San Diego Tribune, who has compiled a database on all the arrests in the NFL since 2000. It is a long and exhausting list to browse through, although it is an interesting assortment of what is probably a true slice of crime in America across all racial, ethnic and geographical boundaries for the general population as well.
Of course I perused the entire list to see how our Baltimore Ravens stacked up against the "competition, and while we've done real well in the past year, overall we have some doozies on the list. League-wide in 2008 alone, there were 84 arrests, with the lone Raven being Derrick Martin (CB), who was caught on June 7, 2008 at Cleveland's airport with three bags of suspected marijuana. While we all think it appears that the Bengals would be leading the pack, and they might if you go all the way back to 2000, the 2008 team leader was the Jacksonville Jaguars, with eight arrests, closely followed by the New York Giants with seven. Denver and Buffalo were the only other teams with five arrests last year. There were ten teams, including the Ravens with only one arrest in 2008, and of course no team went "arrest-less" last year.
Other than Derrick Martin's arrrest in 2008, here is the list of Ravens and their illegal "accomplishments" since 2000, from most recent to the big beginning, which most of you can already figure out. Mind you,this is a list of players that were arrested, and not necessarily convicted.
12/29/07: Gerome Sapp (DB): Misdemeanor assault outside bar, ironically filed by former Raven longsnapper Joe Maese. Charges were dropped after Maese refused to testify.
5/10/07: Steve McNair (QB): McNair was a passenger but the owner of a vehicle being driven by a drunk friend.
8/15/05: BJ Sams (KR/PR): DUI (for the second time in 14 months).
4/20/04: Corey Fuller (DB): Gambling and gun charges for holding a high stakes poker game at his home.
2/25/04: Jamal Lewis (RB): Federal charges of conspiracy to possess cocaine w/ the intent to distribute.
8/18/03: Chris McAlister (DB): DUI
3/9/03: Terrell Suggs (DE): Felony aggrevated assault in Phoenix (charges dropped).
9/4/01: Cornell Brown (LB): Possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
6/15/01: Chris McAlister (CB): In Las Vegas' airpost, he was charged with a misdemeanor of disturbing the peace after getting into an argument with a flight attendant over seating arrangements. (Rexx's Note: Beginning to see a trend here?)
5/4/01: Leon Searcy (OL): Charged w/ domestic violence.
5/20/00: Chris MCAlister (DB): Possession of marijuana (charges dropped). (Rexx's Note: Anybody still miss him?)
...and the biggest and baddest one is.....
1/31/00: Ray Lewis (LB): Initially charged with muder, felony murder and aggrevated assault in the deaths of two men the night of the Super Bowl in Atlanta. Pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and paid a $250,000 NFL fine.
So there's our list of notables, and click here to see the entire story and list of all NFL players.