Police have charged Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez with murder and weapons counts in connection with the slaying of a semi-pro football player whose body was found in an industrial park about a mile from Hernandez’s home.
The charge was revealed Wednesday in Attleboro District Court after Hernandez was arrested at his sprawling North Attleborough home. Less than two hours after his arrest, the Patriots cut Hernandez from the team.
Late last week, Reuters had a likely very incomplete list of “Professional athletes and high-profile crime,” the majority of which were current and former NFL players, along with sprinter Oscar Pistorius and former basketball star Jayson Williams.
Have the number of NFL players associated with “high-profile crimes,” to use Reuters’ language been accelerating exponentially in recent years, or was the NFL simply better at keeping its players off the police blotter in the days before the 24-hour sports TV and the World Wide Web?
On Monday, it was announced that “Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Monday she is in talks with the NFL to help promote new insurance options under ObamaCare.” Is that really an association that the Obama administration wants at this time?
Update: And again: “Browns Release Rookie LB Ausar Walcott After He’s Charged With Attempted Murder,” CBS-Cleveland reports.
More: Photo essay: “27 players arrested since the Super Bowl:” “The most popular league in the country has a problem many of its own players don’t know how to handle: How do you steer yourself away from the things that can take you down?”
Isn’t this also an enormous failure of America’s higher education system?
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