The 2008 NFL Offseason Police Blotters – Kicking, Punching, and Choking Edition

- The Season's Over -

The 2008 NFL Offseason Police Blotters – Kicking, Punching, and Choking Edition

August 26, 2008

LenDale White Photo Credit: Icon SMI

It goes without saying that football is a fiercely violent sport… and it seems to get moreso during every successive season. Linebackers, safeties, and cornerbacks launch like heat- seeking missiles towards WRs, QB, and RBs who very often find themselves in defenseless positions. In the trenches, massive lineman weighing 300+ pounds push and shove and punch their way down the field inch by inch.

It’s no surprise that some of these hulking behemoths have difficulty winding down into normal, everyday life during their short offseason.

- James Harrison, LB, Pittsburgh Steelers: Was arrested for simple battery and criminal mischief, charges that were pursuant to Harrison hitting his girlfriend. He completed an anger management course and had the case dismissed.

- Bryant McKinnie, LT, Minnesota Vikings – Was arrested for and charged with aggravated battery, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest without violence.

- LenDale White, RB, Tennessee Titans – Was issued citations for destruction of property, disobedience to a lawful order, and interference and resisting. ETB could not confirm the dispute stemmed from a disagreement about whose Twinkies were whose.

- Cedrick Wilson, WR, Pittsburgh Steelers – Was charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend at a Pittsburgh restaurant. Wilson allegedly entered the establishment, and upon seeing his ex approached her and punched her in the face.

- Reagan Mauia, FB, Miami Dolphins – Was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery. Mauia was accused of punching a man in the face, causing him to “pass out and fall to the ground.” Before doing the deed, Mauia allegedly asked the victim “what the fuck he was looking at.”

Many more violence-related arrests after the break….

- Kalvin Pearson, S, Detroit Lions – Was charged with aggravated battery on a pregnant woman and domestic battery by strangulation. He also faced a misdemeanor charge of obstructing or opposing an officer without violence for originally fleeing the scene.

A woman who says she is pregnant with Pearson’s child called police and said he grabbed her hair and neck and choked her, “making it difficult for her to breathe.” Police identified and took photos of “red marks and bruising all around her neck.”

- Ahmad Brooks, LB, Cincinnati Bengals – Was accused of punching a woman in the face. The woman says Brooks and her neighbor were about to fight, and she approached them and asked them to stop and “take it somewhere else.” She says that’s when Brooks “pulled back his fist and struck me in the left eye.”

Cincinnati Bungles WR Chris Henry

- Chris Henry, WR, Cincinnati Bengals – Was charged with assault and criminal damaging in Hamilton County, Ohio. Apparently Henry was accused of throwing a bottle to shatter a car window and punching an 18-year-old man in the face. He says it is a case of mistaken identity. Sure it was, Chris, sure it was…

- Michael Boley, LB, Atlanta Falcons – Was arrested and charged with battery at his home in Dacula, Georgia.

- Charles Grant, DE, New Orleans Saints – Was indicted on a charge of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a February altercation at a nightclub. Grant was stabbed in the neck during a fracas outside a nightclub, but police originally said that he was not involved and had no connection to a pregnant woman who was shot and killed.

That must have changed. Grant was one of six men charged in the fight that led to the murder, and another man was charged with felony murder and feticide.

- Brandon Marshall, WR, Denver Broncos – Was arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge in Atlanta. Marshall’s lawyer calls the situation a “shakedown” although Marshall reportedly left his former longtime girlfriend with “visible marks above the eye and a laceration on her top and bottom lip.”

- Marshawn Lynch, RB, Buffalo Bills – Was investigated after a car belonging to him was involved in a hit-and-run accident on Saturday at 3:30am. The vehicle allegedly struck a female pedestrian near a street corner in downtown Buffalo. Witnesses say she laid on the ground for about 15 minutes before walking to an ambulance on her own.

- J.J. Arrington, RB, Arizona Cardinals – Was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct. He was involved in a fight at D & I Event Center in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and was arrested along with four other people.

- Geoffrey Pope, DB, New York Giants – Was accused of felony assault by Detroit Police after allegedly smashing a champagne bottle over a man’s head. Pope’s victim was reportedly the son of a Detroit news anchor who needed 28 stitches to seal his wound. The charge was later dropped.

- Brandon Keith, T, Arizona Cardinals – Plead guilty to misdemeanor rioting and interference with officials stemming from an incident during his college days.

- Odell Thurman, LB, Cincinnati Bengals – Was sought by Sandusky, Ohio, police on a felony assault charge. Thurman, who is currently serving an indefinite suspension from the NFL, allegedly punched a man in the face and broke his jaw at Kalahari Waterpark on May 27. Police say the two were arguing about a place in line.

- Dennis Northcutt, WR, Jacksonville Jaguars – Has been sued for conspiring to attack his pregnant ex-girlfriend. She alleges that Northcutt told his cousin to “maliciously assault, beat, strike and batter [her].” The WR’s agent has called the lawsuit a “desperate shakedown by a jilted ex-girlfriend.”