Student Author Information

Jesse Lichti, University of LynchburgFollow

Location

Snydor Performance Hall

Access Type

Open Access

Presentation Type

Oral presentation

Entry Number

2387

Start Date

4-16-2025 11:00 AM

End Date

4-16-2025 11:15 AM

School

School of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department

Philosophy

Keywords

Domestic Violence, Ethics, Punishment, Sports, NFL

Abstract

The way that professional athletes are punished for violent crimes is something that the leagues need to put an emphasis on. As media coverage has risen in regards to athletes being violent, specifically against women, the fans understanding of its severity has risen along with it. As currently constructed, the NFL allows for too much bias, lacks deterrence, and does not focus on helping the athletes. These are the main points that my presentation focus on. In the next CBA, something like my idea needs to be put into place. This can then be extended to all violent crimes in professional sports leagues. My idea is to appoint a seven person committee that holds meetings and essentially runs a civil court. Two players' association representatives, two league office appointed representatives, and three jointly appointed "experts". There needs to be an adequate amount of diversity on this committee because we can subconsciously have biases towards members of our in-group. A player, on their first offense, gets a maximum suspension of six games. The main recourse of the first offense is to help the athlete to make better decisions. Changing the focus to rehabilitation for athletes will help resolve the issue as much as it can, and will end up being a positive for the NFL both morally and monetarily.

Primary Faculty Mentor(s)

Dr. Devon Brickhouse-Bryson Dr. Lindsay Pieper Dr. Nichole Sanders

Primary Faculty Mentor(s) Department

Philosophy Sports Management

Rights Statement

The right to download or print any portion of this material is granted by the copyright owner only for personal or educational use. The author/creator retains all proprietary rights, including copyright ownership. Any editing, other reproduction or other use of this material by any means requires the express written permission of the copyright owner. Except as provided above, or for any other use that is allowed by fair use (Title 17, §107 U.S.C.), you may not reproduce, republish, post, transmit or distribute any material from this web site in any physical or digital form without the permission of the copyright owner of the material.

Share

COinS
 
Apr 16th, 11:00 AM Apr 16th, 11:15 AM

Domestic Violence Punishments in the NFL

Snydor Performance Hall

The way that professional athletes are punished for violent crimes is something that the leagues need to put an emphasis on. As media coverage has risen in regards to athletes being violent, specifically against women, the fans understanding of its severity has risen along with it. As currently constructed, the NFL allows for too much bias, lacks deterrence, and does not focus on helping the athletes. These are the main points that my presentation focus on. In the next CBA, something like my idea needs to be put into place. This can then be extended to all violent crimes in professional sports leagues. My idea is to appoint a seven person committee that holds meetings and essentially runs a civil court. Two players' association representatives, two league office appointed representatives, and three jointly appointed "experts". There needs to be an adequate amount of diversity on this committee because we can subconsciously have biases towards members of our in-group. A player, on their first offense, gets a maximum suspension of six games. The main recourse of the first offense is to help the athlete to make better decisions. Changing the focus to rehabilitation for athletes will help resolve the issue as much as it can, and will end up being a positive for the NFL both morally and monetarily.