After Raiders receiver Davante Adams was charged with assault, following Monday night’s two-handed shove to the ground of an ESPN freelancer at Arrowhead Stadium, we posed a simple question to the league. Will the Adams case play out under the normal, weekly disciplinary process for situations arising during games, or will Adams now be subject to potential punishment under the Personal Conduct Policy?
Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports that discipline of Adams won’t happen until the legal case is resolved. While it’s not clearly stated in the article, this necessarily means that Adams will be punished under the Personal Conduct Policy, not the usual process for fining or suspending players for things happening during or after games.
After seeing Rapoport’s report, we contacted the league again for an answer to the question of whether Adams will be disciplined now under the game-day rules or later under the Personal Conduct Policy.
“Remains under review pending developments in the case,” NFL Chief Spokesman Brian McCarthy said via email on Sunday morning.
This strongly implies that the situation is tied to the criminal case, and that the final outcome will be handled under the Personal Conduct Policy.
It’s unclear where the line is between in-game punishment (which activates a process culminating in an appeal to Derrick Brooks or James Thrash) and discipline under the Personal Conduct Policy (which gives the NFL final say over the appeal, following a decision by Judge Sue L. Robinson). The filing of assault charges can’t be the deciding factor, because things happen after a given play for which assault charges technically could be filed. In theory, Mason Rudolph could have filed assault charges against Myles Garrett in 2019 after Garrett attacked Rudolph with his own helmet. In 2005, Andre Gurode could have filed assault charges against Albert Haynesworth, after Haynesworth pulled off Gurode’s helmet and stomped on his forehead. The filing of charges surely wouldn’t have delayed the disciplinary process.
Here, the difference is that the game was over, and Adams was walking toward the locker room. Also, the victim wasn’t another player, but someone hired to do a job in connection with ESPN’s broadcast of the game. It more naturally falls under the Personal Conduct Policy, even without the filing of charges.
It’s good news for the Raiders in the short term, because it means they’ll have Adams when they emerge from this weekend’s bye. Eventually, however, Adams is surely looking at some sort of punishment, to be determined initially by Judge Robinson and to be finalized by the Commissioner or his designee -- barring an agreed resolution to the situation.