NFL Departmental Policy Summary

Through research and support from historical analysis, criminological theory, and support from the relevant branches of the criminal justice system the National Football League’s departmental policy on substance abuse has been in use and amended many different time since the early 1970’s. In the following paper recommendations will be made to help make changes to the NFL’s substance abuse policy, and it will address specific needs to help the National Football League clean up their image.

The NFL has had problem with substance abuse since the early 1980’s, often times this is just handled by the league and organizations alone. However, often there are arrests that are made due to certain substance abuse that happens this is where the courts

and law enforcement come in. They are often not affected during the violation by a player or member of the coaching staff. So, to say they have any specific needs when the NFL is selecting a new departmental policy on substance abuse is probably not the case as they have their own policy and procedures to follow in making an arrest and trying a person in the court of law. However, the fans of the NFL should be taken into count when developing the policy. The fans deserve the best product possible to be put on the field every Sunday, as the men of the NFL are role models for kids and fans alike. In strengthening policy and punishment for substance abuse, this will help let payers know that violating the policy is not acceptable in the eyes of the fans and league. The new departmental policy will strengthen the stance of the league, and allow the league to bring forth the best product possible for fans. This policy will hopefully help law enforcement and courts from having to deal with players due to arrest for abusing illegal substances. The departmental policy will address the need of the fans by helping clean up the image of the NFL allowing just slaps on the wrist for violating the policy.

The NFL’s punishment policy states “discipline for a first offense will be a suspension without pay for up to four (4) regular and/or post-season games.

If the Commissioner finds that there were aggravating circumstances, including but not limited to felonious conduct or serious injury or death of third parties, and/or if the Player has had prior drug or alcohol related misconduct, increased discipline may be imposed. Discipline for a second or subsequent offense, absent aggravating circumstances, will be a suspension without pay for a minimum of six (6) up to ten (10) regular and/or post-season games.” (NFL, 2016) This is the departmental policy that will amended to become a more strict policy. The punishment would be recommended to be changed in the first violation would be suspension without pay for eight games, the second violation would net a suspension of a full season, and the third strike would be a permanent suspension from the NFL with no pay.

“Punishment is justified only to preserve the social contract. Therefore, the purpose of punishment is to prevent future transgressions by deterring socially harmful behavior. Only that amount of punishment necessary to offset the gains of harmful behavior is justified.” (McShane &Williams, 2014) This is supported by the classical school theory in that players are allowing themselves to be regulated through things such as testing, this is to allow the league to protect their image as well as deter individuals from violating

policy.
The recommendations on the substance abuse policy will improve the statistics of the league, and hopefully drop the amount of substance abuse violations in the league. If the player is arrested for the use of a substance this will clearly violate the substance abuse policy, however the league will also need to support any criminal proceedings that will follow against the player.
The classical school theory is the main theory that supports the change in policy for substance abuse.

This theory supports it by allowing the league to do what is best for the league, players, and fans. It simply allows punishment to deter any future violations of the new policy in place. Also, the labeling theory comes to mind if a player violates the substance abuse, or steroid policies of the NFL the player would obviously be labeled as a risk to have on your team in the future. The labeling theory means “that certain negative qualities are ascribed to people. The labeling may come from those closest in the individual's environment, from other social groups and finally from within the individual himself.” (Knuttson, 1977)

The policy would satisfy the public needs and views of the NFL being a soft league on violations. This would also support the aforementioned league image. The labeling theory, as well as the classical school theory justifies the appropriateness of policy recommended by to use the classical theory to support to minimizing the labeling theory of the players. This is done by simply lowering the number of violations by increasing the penalty for a

violation.
There could obviously be some issues with the recommendations of a new policy that increases penalties against the players. The most resistance would be from the NFL Players Association. The players would resist against this, because players would not be allowed the same number violations and would cost them millions of dollars. NFL teams could also see a negative impact from an increase of violations of the new policy. This could hurt the image of the team and possibly cost the team in merchandise and ticket sales. With the negative impact, the policy could change in that the player’s salary who violates the substance abuse policy would be donated to a local charity for their suspension.
The ability for the league to use the policy to use a positive reaction as a tougher stance against drug will allow the league to market the league as more of a role model for the younger audience. This would also allow the league to become an advocate for the fight against opioid abuse which is now becoming a much larger problem for the United States. This will also allow the league to use the positive reaction that will gain back the fans they may have lost from previous handlings of kneeling during the national anthem.
In theory there will be many positive and negative reactions from both sides of the this new substance abuse proposal, but something needs to be done to help repair the broken image the NFL is facing from a lengthy substance abuse image problem.