Why do some teams like the 49ers allow an accused player to stay on the active roster while teams like the Vikings and the Panthers have suspended or inactivated players?
James Knox: I would guess that it has to be – it’s got to be their own discretion as to whether or not they want to, again, take any sort of employment action. I don’t handle employment law cases, but I think there has to be some area that you have to be careful about as far as removing a player and still not violating their rights regarding their employment. You can discipline a player for cause, and there’s probably a conduct clause in their contracts.
But, again, these are only allegations. We could always say that it could be very easy for somebody to set up a player and create false allegations. It’s happened before. And in this instance, you could target some star player that you don’t want to play anymore – and there are some nefarious people out there that would do those types of things – just to gain some competitive advantage in the NFL.
Imagine the star quarterback of one of the teams that are in playoff contention. What if all of a sudden somebody out of the woodwork said that this player allegedly raped me, or hit me, or did something like that. If we go along the path that some people are looking at, that player would be immediately removed from the team and disciplined and there’s no way that you could recover that time where that person has the ability to come back to exonerate themselves from the false allegation.
Stephen Levine, is a Board Certified Specialist in Criminal Defense — an honor achieved by only the top criminal law attorneys in California. Mr. Levine has over 40 years of experience in criminal defense and family law serving Southern California, and is a highly regarded Super Lawyer as well as AV Rated attorney.