NFL Announces New Policy Barring Players with Domestic Violence Convictions from Combine

According to a memo obtained by USA Today, NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent recently informed teams that players with a conviction for domestic violence, sexual assault, or a weapons offense would not be invited to the annual scouting combine in Indianapolis.

Vincent also told teams that "players who are barred from the combine will have no restrictions from attending other private workouts, pro days and regional combines," so it sounds like they could still make their way onto rosters. But he reiterated the commitment to "league values" so that observers would know that "character matters." So that's nice.

For context, had this policy been in place one year ago, Jameis Winston would still be invited to the combine, probably still would have skipped an appearance at the draft, and still would have been the No. 1 overall pick. Had Johnny Manziel's recent string of assaults on his ex-girlfriend happened before he was drafted, and this policy were in place, he would have been invited to the combine. Ditto for Greg Hardy, though that might have required some lawyering because he was convicted of beating his girlfriend and throwing her on a bed of guns, only to see that conviction overturned.

This is where the NFL finds itself in 2016: besieged by bad guys creating bad press for the league and the only thing it can think to do is promulgate some worthless policy. The quintessential NFL policy, in fact. Incapable of being anything but reactionary—because who cares about a problem until it becomes a problem—the NFL settles for punishment in lieu of education. We are sorry entitled athletes keep beating the shit out of their loved ones, so we won't invite them to our annual horse trade show. If they're convicted, that is.

Perhaps an honest-to-goodness effort to educate your potential talent pool before they beat the shit out of loved ones would be helpful. Perhaps not further disincentivizing victims from reporting a domestic assault, or further incentivizing schools and coaches to keep looking the other way and protect the player because an assault conviction now has just a tiny bit more added to it than a "red flag" would do more to show people that character matters to the NFL.

[USA Today]