US police have arrested Jonathan Dwyer of the Arizona Cardinals on suspicion of assault, just the latest NFL player to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The allegations stem from an incident in July at a Phoenix home and involved a 27-year-old woman and an 18-month-old baby boy, media reports said.
“We became aware of these allegations this afternoon when notified by Phoenix police and are cooperating fully,” the Cardinals said in a statement, adding Dwyer will not play for an indefinite period.
“Given the serious nature of the allegations we have taken the immediate step to deactivate Jonathan from all team activities.
“We will continue to closely monitor this as it develops and evaluate additional information as it becomes available.”
The Arizona Republic newspaper reported on its azcentral.com website that the 25-year-old running back was arrested at the team’s training facility on suspicion of aggravated assault.
A Phoenix police spokesman said investigators took a report on the incident on September 11 and detectives had since been seeking medical records and interviewing witnesses.
Dwyer is in his fifth NFL season. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and signed a one-year contract with the Cardinals in March.
Dwyer’s arrest quickly made headlines because it follows high-profile legal cases involving NFL players Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Greg Hardy.
Baltimore Ravens star Rice has been banned indefinitely from the league after punching his fiancee.
Carolina player Hardy is appealing a conviction for assaulting a former girlfriend and Peterson is charged with child abuse for administering a whipping to his young son, a charge that he denies.
San Francisco 49ers defensive tackle Ray McDonald is also accused of striking his pregnant girlfriend.
Bondy
Guest
Pedro Intelligent post .
mushi
Guest
Are you saying that incidents involving players of Caucasian, Hispanic, Polynesian etc descent are being swept under the rug? The reason nobody's calling it racism is because no body other than your fine self believes race is a defining issue, even though your position that they are systematically attacking the sport itself suggests they are treating all NFL players equally.
Pedro the Maroon
Guest
You are kidding right? I'm as misogynistic (sp??) as the next guy here on The Roar, but even I know that a professional athlete striking a weaker woman or a child is just plain wrong. Maybe it's the 'roids that make 'em so aggressive. The NRL has a pretty bad record in the female-bashing department too. Soccer, AFL and rugby not so much. It may be a reflection of the average intelligence of the meatheads who excel at the different codes.
Joe
Guest
Brian, you hit the nail on the head. This whole thing is insanity, the way the media & special interest groups have turned this into a full on attack on the NFL
Brian M
Guest
Clearly there is some sort of effort to systematically attack the NFL or the sport itself. Something is driving this orgy of media hysteria. What's interesting is that nobody is calling this racism even though most of the players involved are black. I guess feminism or whatever is driving these systematic media attacks on the NFL trumps racial issues. Its interesting that the NRL has been attacked in a similar way. Perhaps any aggressive male sport is simply a target for feminists to go after.