Another brutal, bone-crunching National Football League season kicks off this week with gridiron anxious to draw a line under a season of shame that enhanced its reputation as the Wild West of professional sport.

America's most popular sport often resembled an episode of America's most wanted after a series of scandals involving domestic violence, child abuse and even a conviction for murder.

Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was effectively kicked out of the sport in the aftermath of an assault on his then fiancee in a hotel elevator which was captured by a security camera.

Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson also missed virtually the entire 2014 season after accusations of child abuse, relating to the whipping of one of his children with a tree branch.
Peterson was also forced to deny lurid allegations that he had used a credit card registered to his charitable foundation to pay for a hotel room that hosted an orgy in 2011 involving himself, two relatives and four women.

Further body blows to the sport's image came earlier this year, when former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez was convicted of murder while 2010 Super Bowl winner Darren Sharper was jailed for admitting multiple counts of rape involving women in several states.

- Tougher punishments -

Shaken by accusations that it has not done enough to tackle domestic violence in the past, the National Football League beefed up its personal conduct policy last December after an extensive series of meetings and discussions.

The policy includes an increased minimum suspension of six games for violations involving assault, battery, domestic violence, dating violence, child abuse or sexual assault.
The NFL has also drafted in Lisa Friel, a former prosecutor from the New York County district attorney's office with expertise in sex crime cases, to oversee the league's investigations in cases regarding off-field misconduct.

Friel addressed around 250 rookies at an NFL symposium in June to explain the detail of the NFL's new tougher personal conduct policy, joking that she hoped never to see any of the players again.

Yet many of the latest crop of players entering the NFL this season have already accumulated baggage, notably number one draft pick Jameis Winston, chosen by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers despite a chequered disciplinary record in college football which included an allegation of sexual assault.

Seattle Seahawks defensive end Frank Clark, the 22-year-old defensive end who has impressed in pre-season, won a place in the NFL despite finishing his college career in shame last year, kicked off the Michigan Wolverines for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend.
The pre-season for this year's campaign has also been marred by a series of brawls involving opposing players and on occasion, even team-mates.

The most high-profile case involved New York Jets quarter-back Geno Smith, who was left with a broken jaw after being sucker-punched by team-mate IK Enemkpali.

Enemkpali was subsequently sacked by the Jets. Last month meanwhile, what was supposed to be a friendly training camp game between the Dallas Cowboys and St Louis Rams was punctuated by a series of spectacular large-scale punch-ups that went viral.

Similar mayhem erupted during a training camp practice between the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans earlier in August, when three fights broke out within five minutes.

The rash of cases prompted the NFL to issue a reminder to teams that fighting was frowned upon.

"As professionals, no matter how emotional the game becomes, there is nothing that should resort to fighting," NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent wrote in a memo
Source: AFP