9781422283073

police did issue a statement that a Good Samaritan had helped a woman from a car wreck. However, be- cause Fleming wasn’t specifically identified, the story questioned Fleming’s account. Fleming posted on his official Twitter account @dfleming58: “People are quick to try and bring you down…so sad.” In fact, stories on the hundreds of NFL players doing exemplary things are generally relegated to social media and team websites. There are roughly 1,900 players who take the field for NFL teams each season, and there has been an average of 54 arrests of NFL players per year. That means just fewer than three percent of all play- ers are getting into pretty serious trouble. According to FBI statistics, there were an es- timated 13 million arrests in the United States in 2010 (the most recent national figures available). With more than 300 million people in the country, the arrest rate is a little more than four percent. Taken in that light, it might seem as if NFL players are merely reflective of the rest of society. Yet anything bad they do receives banner coverage. And even with that,

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