Amid troubling allegations of the serial drugging and raping of multiple women in multiple states, NFL Network has taken decisive action against former NFL safety Darren Sharper.
An NFL spokesman tells the New York Daily News that the league-owned media outlet has fired Sharper.
Sharper, a 12-year safety was suspended from NFLN indefinitely without pay in January, has various legal protections aimed at ensuring innocent men and women aren’t wrongfully imprisoned. Private business can draw its own conclusions and impose its own decisions. Given the NFL’s clear and important connection to the public at large, misconduct of league employees becomes more difficult to excuse or explain away.
While Sharper remains innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law, the NFL has decided that Sharper is at a minimum responsible for conduct that reflects very poorly on the league. With a small battalion of former law-enforcement officials employed by NFL Security, the league had the ability to obtain information about the allegations against Sharper that aren’t available to the public.
If Sharper eventually is exonerated, he presumably can re-apply for employment. If he’s not, it doesn’t matter. The latest charges filed against Sharper in Louisiana carry a possible life sentence.