Just a heads up that I do not know much about football, but my awesome friend Ali Abdelhamid does and helped me out with all the information for this article. I had heard about the crimes committed by NFL players and how they were pushed under a rug for some time, but I had no idea of the extent of it. I wanted to write a piece exposing what I knew, but honestly, I know as much about football as I know about golf: absolutely nothing.

So, I enlisted my friend and fellow football expert Ali to help me out. He gave me the necessary information to write this article, and some credit should be given to him. Thank you Ali for helping me out, and exposing players that needed to be exposed. For works cited, click here.

"I personally come from generations of Steelers fans so I have seen first hand the amount of love the people of Pittsburgh have for Ben Roethlisberger. Most fanbases are like this with their franchise players. I am not saying it is wrong to love players that help your favorite team, but just remember their past and really think about them off the field before you idolize them." -Ali Abdelhamid (my bud.)

1. Ben Roethlisberger

Ben Roethlisberger has a strong history of rape and sexual assault. He has played as a quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers for the past 15 seasons.

In 2008 a woman working at a casino called Harrah’s Lake Tahoe accused Ben Roethlisberger of raping her. She filed a civil suit instead of a criminal suit in the fear that her employer would side with the Steelers' quarterback.

She sought $440,000 in damages from Ben Roethlisberger. The lawsuit also claimed that the woman had to be hospitalized for depression following the supposed attack. However, Ben Roethlisberger got off with no punishment whatsoever, whether it be from the legal system or from the NFL.

A few years later though, in 2010, he was arrested yet again for similar allegations. This time it was sexual assault. Amber Hanley, a 21-year-old college student, asked for Ben Roethlisberger’s autograph in the VIP section of a nightclub. When she refused his moves on her, Ben Roethlisberger cursed her out and proceeded to aggressively hit on another girl. This time the NFL did punish Ben Roethlisberger with a mere six-game suspension, which was later reduced to four games. It appears that sexually assaulting someone, for a Pro Bowl caliber NFL player, only correlates to a four-game suspension and nothing more.

2. Adam Jones

It’s honestly a shock that this man is still playing football. Maybe it’s because teams don’t want to overlook his talent because he was the sixth overall pick in the NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans. Simply put, Adam Jones is insane.

He has been arrested 10 times since he was drafted in 2005. He has been arrested for vandalism, assaulting police officers multiple times, marijuana possession multiple times, public intoxication, resisting arrest, punching a woman, disorderly conduct, and he was even associated with a strip club shooting that left a man paralyzed.

It was the sheer number of violations Adam Jones committed that led to this suspension. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell even said he considered a lifetime ban on Adam Jones. So why did Roger Goodell not do it?

Because general managers of the NFL were still eager to acquire Adam Jones even after the suspension. In the end, his talent earned Adam Jones an 11th chance in the NFL.

3. Dez Bryant

Dez Bryant is a Cowboy’s wide receiver and very similar to Adam Jones in that he has been arrested multiple times for multiple reasons.

Most people consider their mothers to be important, caring, and loving figures in their lives. Dez Bryant, on the other hand, feels otherwise. Bryant severely beat his mother, Angela Bryant, multiple times.

She suffered multiple bruises, chest pain, and ripped clothes. This was clearly a red flag. The NFL clearly thought differently and did not punish Dez Bryant at all. Dez Bryant should be on this list, not for the number of times he has been arrested or because of his petty past disputes, but rather because of the severity of one incident: abusing his own biological mother.

4. Greg Hardy

In 2014 Greg Hardy was arrested because of a domestic violence charge by Nicole Holder. Even though both parties had drastically different stories about what happened, Hardy was convicted.

She claims that Hardy threw her from a bed, threw her into a bathtub, threw her onto a futon covered with rifles, ripped a necklace off her neck, threw it in a toilet, and proceeded to smash the lid onto her arm as she tried fishing it out, dragged her by the hair room to room, threatening to kill her.

This resulted in Hardy being on the exempt/commissioner's permission list for an entire season by the NFL from playing with the Carolina Panthers. This essentially means he was suspended but still got paid. However, since Hardy is a Pro Bowler, he was obviously given a second chance. This time with the Dallas Cowboys.

He was initially suspended for 10 more games for that season but it was later reduced to four.

5. Ezekiel Elliott

Elliott was also accused of domestic violence, but his situation was far more complicated than that of Greg Hardy. Elliott was initially accused in February leading up to the NFL Draft, where he was selected fourth overall by the Dallas Cowboys.

The victim, a woman, claimed that Elliott was drunk, threw out all of her belongings, and pushed her against a wall. After the draft, the woman cited five more incidents in July where he abused her. Even though Elliott got off without any legal trouble, the NFL decided to do their own investigations.

Elliott went the entirety of the proceeding season answering questions from the NFL over the incident, but he remained innocent for the time being. Elliott was then investigated again over an incident in March where he pulled a girl’s shirt down at a parade without her consent and this happened amongst a huge crowd of people, so there were plenty of witnesses.

Yet nothing happened to Elliot. However, by August 11th, Elliot had been given a six-game suspension for the domestic violence case that had happened over a year ago. Elliott appealed the suspension. A player is allowed to play through an appeal until the process is over.

After the appeal, Elliott’s suspension stood. Elliott retaliated by going to a higher court, and winning that case. He then became eligible to play. This back and forth between the NFL and Elliott continued until November 15th when Elliott eventually gave up, deciding to take the suspension. In the end he waited over a year to finally get suspended for abusing a woman.