Jacobs arrested on domestic abuse charges
Mike Florio and Chris Simms discuss Josh Jacobs being arrested and booked on several domestic abuse charges, analyzing the multiple factors at play in the situation.
Video Transcript
And this came out of the blue yesterday, and it's very troubling.
It involves a player that we personally like, but you gotta set that aside if the allegations against Packers running back Josh Jacobs are true.
He was arrested after a domestic disturbance complaint that happened on Saturday morning in Washington.
He faces five charges: a felony charge of strangulation and suffocation, which is obviously a horrific, horrific allegation, and if true, a horrific crime; four de- mis- misdemeanor charges of battery/domestic abuse, criminal damage to property/domestic abuse, disorderly conduct/domestic abuse, and intimidation of, of victim.
The Packers issued a statement last night, "We're aware of the matter involving Josh Jacobs.
As it is an ongoing legal situation, we will withhold further comment."
The league said it is aware of the report and has been in contact with the club.
Jacobs' lawyers issued a statement saying that, "Josh vehemently denies the allegations.
This matter is in the early stages of investigation with important evidence that has not yet been made public."
And we understand there's two sides to every story.
Yeah.
But in most jurisdictions, to get someone arrested, you gotta have some basis.
You gotta show up and tell someone a story that is sufficiently convincing to cause someone to believe there's probable cause to come to the conclusion that some sort of a crime was committed.
Now, we saw just a couple of weeks ago, in very dramatic fashion, the collapse of the criminal case against Stefon Diggs to the point where that arrest never should have been made.
Right.
Right.
Those allegations were not properly vetted.
The case wasn't properly f- prepared.
The, the logic wasn't challenged.
The witness wasn't interrogated the way that the witness needs to be interrogated ahead of time.
Right.
You know, you get your witness ready for cross-examination at trial by aggressively questioning everything about the witness's claims before trial, before you even make the charge, before you even try to pursue a felony and turn someone's life upside down.
It's a, it's a, a harsh reminder of how much discretion the prosecutors have.
But r- regardless, I would like to think there's a basic level of professionalism and due diligence that is applied before you would turn anyone's life upside down with these kinds of claims.
And I know that may be a little naive, that people get arrested all the time based upon the- Yeah the flimsiest and thinnest of complaints, but, but still, somebody had to This is different from a civil complaint where anyone can sue anyone else for anything.
You have to at least convince someone else that this happened.
And we don't know any of the facts.
All we know is the bottom line, that, that- Yeah because Josh Jacobs was arrested, that means that- Right somebody did- He convinced somebody convince someone- Right, right that he did something he shouldn't have done.
Yeah, yeah.
Not a good look.
I mean, certainly not.
you know, especially when you rattle off all those things and five different charges.
When you see it, it's kind of, like, jarring.
It's like, oh my gosh, crazy.
But you're right.
You know, again, if he's guilty of all these things, then shame on him, and damn, he's gonna have to pay the consequences, and he should.
But, like, history has also taught us that, you know, within love and relationships like that at times too, yeah, these stories and things can go a little crazy.
So you gotta w- kind of wait to, to let it flush out here and, and to see, to, to your point with the Stefon Diggs situation and other situations.
And you've heard me tell this before too, you know, I'm, I'm always a little hesitant to judge with these type of situations and just because I saw some of them happen, you know, during my NFL career, where, yeah, there was times the player was definitely the problem, but there was definitely other times where the other side was the problem too, right?
You know, the, the significant other, the girlfriend, the wife, whatever.
So that's where But either way, it's not a good look, and it's a stain on Josh Ja- Jacobs' reputation.
It obviously got to a point to where it shouldn't have, to where cops needed to be called, and that's alarming if you're the Green Bay Packers or a fan of Josh Jacobs too.
And now the Packers have to deal with this and, and then of course, have to worry about how severe it is, how severe it is, and at a position where, you know, he's damn good.
They pay him good money.
He's entrenched as a starter.
They got some unproven commodities behind him to where, yeah, this is by far the guy at that position.
So yeah, there's a lot here to be worried about if you're the Green Bay Packers and Josh Jacobs.
I mean, the most immediate issue for Josh Jacobs is this criminal case, and we've seen how this goes.
There will be court appearances.
There will be an arraignment.
Not guilty plea will be entered, and the case will move forward, and we'll get updates basically whenever there's something that happens in court.
There'll be a schedule for a trial, and then at some point, barring a plea deal, there will be a trial.
As relates to the Packers and the NFL, we learned in very stark terms in 2014 in the cases of Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, and Adrian Peterson, which all unfolded in a fairly short timeframe and brought to life the NFL's use of the- Yeah paid leave component of the personal conduct policy, which typically gets activated when someone is facing some sort of a domestic situation.
They didn't use it on, for example, Rashee Rice when he was facing multiple felonies arising from that cartoonish street racing incident from March of 2024.
They typically only use it when someone is facingA serious domestic violence allegation, and the whole idea is we don't want him out on the field, we don't want people to have to talk about him as they're broadcasting the game, although the reality is it still has to be mentioned why the guy isn't there.
But they use paid leave.
They call it not punishment.
It's ridiculous it's not punishment, because football players wanna play football.
They still get paid.
And if you're not very good, what happens is you get put on paid leave, and then your team cuts you 'cause they don't wanna pay you while you're on paid leave.
Yeah.
So you gotta be good enough to survive being put on paid leave, or you're gonna end up quickly on unpaid leave.
So the league's gonna have to decide eventually, and the league delays this as long as possible because the league realizes 'cause this is all, everything about the personal conduct policy, paid leave, unpaid suspensions, everything about it flows from PR considerations.
Yeah, right.
Most employers do not take action against employees who get in trouble away from work unless that trouble prevents the employee from working.
If, if you call your boss and say, "I can't be at work today," and the boss says, "Why?"
And you say, "Because I'm in jail," that becomes a problem.
It does, yeah.
Right?
Right.
Well, "When, when, when do you think you'll be back?"
You know- "Uh, in three to five years."
Ugh.
That's a problem.
But and I don't mean to make light of it, but I'm just trying to, I'm trying to- Yeah you know- Give an example.
I got you make the point in an entertaining way.
Right, yeah.
Yeah.
The NFL decided years ago that, that it, it doesn't want to deal with the criticism that would come from the media or the fans that you're giving employment to this person who has been accused of this thing that is unrelated to the job.
And at a certain level, it's just wrong to do that.
You should separate what you do at work versus what you do at home.
And, you know, for most people, you get in trouble away from work, and it never does affect you.
Now, some of the allegations may be stigmatizing, and it could create problems, and there may be some safety concerns.
You know, if you've got somebody who drives a forklift, and he's got a DUI, then that, that could be problematic when he shows up to drive the forklift after he's got the, you know, second, or third, or fourth DUI.
But for the most part, the NFL only cares about this because of the PR.
So it's all about PR.
So you have to view it not from a legal perspective.
You have to look at it through a PR lens.
Yeah.
And the league wants to avoid creating a, a big deal about it until it has to.
So I think what'll happen here is he'll probably bow out of the rest of the off-season program, be excused from the mandatory mini camp while this all gets sorted out, and then the league's gonna have to decide whether or not to put him on paid leave when it's time to show up for training camp.
And, that's the, that's the latest they can delay it before it becomes conspicuous to not take action.
And they're gonna have to decide based They're gonna have to do an investigation.
They're gonna have to decide, "Is there enough there for us to reasonably believe it's possible this is a valid claim, and, are we gonna not want him around the Green Bay Packers?"
Yeah.
And then the Packers are gonna have a short-term and immediate problem that they have to deal with at, you know, a fairly important position in their offense.
