2 percent), according to the FBI in 2010" (Maller). That equals out to about one athlete per team. Maller also states, "NFL players are actually incarcerated less than the average citizen." Anyone can argue however, that it is simply because an athlete has the money to pay for the damages.
USA Today, did a study of 40 cases between 2001 and 2006 of pro athletes that were sentenced to community service for charges such as, "assaulting fans, cops, wives and girlfriends; sex with minors; drunken driving; hit-and-run; possession of illegal drugs; carrying concealed weapons; firing pistols in public; and vehicular homicide." Of those forty cases, only four athletes served community services that had menial labor like what a non-celebrity defendant would serve. Two athletes punishments "had not been decided because the courts had not set it or the athletes had not chosen how to fulfill the requirement" (McCarthy, and Upton). .
The other athletes who chose how to fulfill their community service did so by throwing out first pitches at baseball games, signing autographs for an hour or coaching at training camps, because "the hardest thing for an athlete to do is subject themselves to menial tasks" (McCarthy, and Upton). Defendants with non-celebrity statuses often get to choose when, where and how they serve community service also. However, they have to stick with picking up trash on the side of the road in between work shifts, because their autographs are not worth anything. .
Many will argue however, that athletes should not be punished more severely because they have the money for it, but that is not the point the public is trying to make. They are not saying charge them more severely they are simply saying to charge them the way a non-celebrity would be charged. If you are going to charge Mark the Librarian for speeding and passing in a no pass zone, then Kurt Busch the NASCAR driver, should also be punished for doing the same thing.
