Is the NFL lockout causing trouble with the law for players? (Part 2)
This is the second part of a series of articles discussing legal troubles that players have had since the National Football League (NFL) imposed a lockout on its players and that the arrests and citations could have been avoided had there been no
lockout.
However, the entire blame cannot be placed on the NFL lockout. Some players just can’t control themselves from causing trouble. A player that will be discussed later was arrested for the second time in three years for possession of an illegal drug. Another
player turned himself in for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and has a history of problems with the law.
But now, we get to the players themselves and what exactly they did. These are in order of oldest to recent, starting with Chris Cook, cornerback for the Minnesota Vikings, who was arrested on 12 March on a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a firearm.
Cook just finished his rookie season with the Vikes. He started in five of the six games that he played in and had 21 tackles, 16 of which were solo, along with two passes deflected. He was drafted in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft, 34th overall,
by the Vikings out of the University of Virginia.
In college, Cook started in 31 of the 38 games that he played in for the Virginia Cavaliers, recording 143 tackles, 5.5 tackles for a loss of yards, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery for a touchdown, 19 passes broken up and seven interceptions, two
of which were returned for a touchdown.
So what exactly happened that led to Cook being arrested? Police said that the 24-year-old defensive back wielded a weapon and pointed it at a neighbor after an argument. Cook said in an interview that he was riding his motorcycle near his home when a neighbor,
a man living two houses away from Cook, started yelling at him because he thought that Cook called the police on his brother.
“You’re not going to scream at me like I’m your child so I screamed back at him,” Cook said.
Cook said that the fight did not turn physical and, although he has a license for a concealed firearm, he did not brandish the weapon during the argument. At the time, Cook did not know if he would be charged or not but it was later decided in a court hearing
that he would be charged with brandishing a firearm, a misdemeanour charge in the state of Virginia.
The next player to have a problem with the law was Mario Henderson, currently a free agent defensive tackle but formerly a member of the Oakland Raiders. He was arrested in Fort Myers, Florida on 17 March for carrying a concealed firearm after he was pulled
over for playing music too loud.
Henderson had been with the Raiders for four years, starting 28 games of the 44 that he played in since he was drafted in the third round of the 2007 NFL Draft, overall pick number 91.
For find out who else had legal troubles and what they were, check out the next part of this article.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy. However, all of the arrests and information regarding are factual.
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