The Aaron Hernandez horror show got a lot of people talking about crime in the NFL. Again. Here, here, or here, they’re talking about a “culture of crime.” Even EA Sports has weighed in on the topic, in its own fashion, by removing Hernandez from its Madden NFL 25 and NCAA Football 14 video games. In this week’s post, I wanted to look at the colleges and conferences contributing the most to the crime problem. Here’s how I went about it: 1.) I mined the singular database of NFL players arrested over the years as compiled and maintained by San Diego’s Union-Tribune here; 2.) I used the internets to determine the school and conference of each arrestee; 3.) I presumed everyone innocent until proven guilty. Because the U-T includes arrests that resulted in the charges being dismissed or dropped, I did, too.
Looking at 2013 to date, here’s what we have:
[table “” not found /]Of a total of forty NFL players arrested in 2013, 12 of them (30%) hail from the SEC, 6 (15%) from the Big 12, 5 from the ACC (12.5%), and 4 (10%) each from The B1G and The American. Compare those percentages to the total number of pro players hailing from the two “leading” conferences, 314 (18.5% of total players) from the SEC and 162 (9.55% of total players) from the Big 12. They’re almost doubling their contribution, as it were. Also noteworthy, I found, was the presence of Temple and Harvard on the list, and the shockingly low numbers of Oakland and Dallas players on the list. It goes without saying, perhaps, that no Notre Dame players made the list in 2013 or in 2012. No professional Notre Dame players, that is. I guess that’s another benefit from Tommy Rees not coming out early.
If you run the names back to the beginning of 2012, the list grows to eighty-five arrestees, and the number of SEC players grows to 25, or 29.4% of the total. In that same period, the Big 12 “only” adds another four “bad boys,” such that it now accounts for 11.7% of the 85 players arrested since 12/31/2011.
What does this mean? Well, a lot, actually. My hypothesis at this time is that the “percentage-contribution” of SEC-players will remain relatively consistent over time, meaning that as you add numbers of arrestees, the SEC’s percentage of that number will fall much slower (30% v. 29.4%) than that of its nearest 2013 competitor, The Big 12. And, in that short eighteen month sample, The Big 12’s percentage-contribution of arrestees quickly closed on equaling its percentage-contribution of total number of players, while the SEC contributed far more arrestees, on a percentage basis, than it did on a total player basis.
There are six hundred plus pages in the Union-Tribune‘s database and I invite someone to go through them all so I don’t have to. But I will.
(Author’s Note: Apologies to Southern Miss and Clemson, who were erroneously included in the SEC. I have corrected that, and the numbers and percentages. I apologize for the error and confusion)
Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.
Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.
- Finding Flaws in a Diamond: Clemson’s Rushing Offense - December 17, 2018
- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
Clemson and Southern Miss aren’t in the SEC
I am no fan of the SEC but Clemson is in the ACC and should not count towards the SEC Villians
Clemson is in acc
Clemson and Southern Mississippi are not SEC.
All: Thank you for reading and commenting and paying careful attention. I corrected the mistake — that’s what I get for doing a table at night. Anyway, the numbers, percentages and table have been corrected. Thanks!!!
In the 7/9 edition of the Sarasota (Tampa)Herald Tribune the sports page stated Urban Meyer had 25 arrests among his players while he coached at the U of Florida(Gaineville) A few years earlier the same statement was made but it also included a statement regarding Joe Paterno being second among the active coaches(at that time) with 24 arrests among his players. If this is fact Joe PA was never the squeaky clean guy they wanted us to believe he was. Of course I was well aware of the wrist slapper Joe was when it came to punishment.
Hi Tom! Thanks for reading and for commenting. Penn State are in the Mountain West Conference, right? Haha. If we’re counting college football, ND would definitely be on the list (tommy, carlo, etc.) but not to the level of a Florida or a Paterno-coached PSU.
As a lifelong Cowboy fan, I have to weigh in on the comment about our players. Following the White House years, the cupcake culture of previous coaches, and a number of bad pub incidences, Jurra has made a very concerted effort to ‘clean up’ the team’s image. This coincides directly with the hiring of Roger Goodell and his crackdown on the bad behavior that previously gripped the league. Dallas is actually the second-to-least arrested team in the NFL.
Josh Brent is working hard to bring that rep back.
Every team definitely has knuckleheads, that’s for sure.
Nice reach to get a zinger in on Tommy Rees. Snide, small-minded comments are always fun to read. You did yourself proud, Bayou.
Why not do a list of arrestees at the college level?
Da’Quan Bowers of Clemson is still listed as being in the SEC.
Also, thank you for doing this analysis. Considering I always think about NFL players based on their colleges, this question had been going through my head already.
Rolando McClain is on there twice… I am as big of a SEC hater as the next guy (not affiliated with the SEC), but the inaccuracies will make most dismiss off hand. That said I applaud you for the time spent, and think that this, when complete and cleaned up a bit, will be good for rest of the sports world to see. The SEC has no interest in the players themselves besides as tools ($) for their perspective institution. Would love to see this finished product and graduation rates side by side.
He’s on there twice because he was arrested twice in 2013. After his first arrest, he and the Raiders parted ways and he signed with Baltimore.
What’s the reach? I’m doing an article on arrest rates and I’m not going to mention the seminal moment of the 2012 season in which Tommy ended the quarterback controversy by getting arrested?
see my reply below