NFL won’t revisit LeSean McCoy bar fight

[Billy Buffalo]

Three years ago, prosecutors decided not to charge Bills running back LeSean McCoy in connection with a bar fight involving an off-duty police officer. The NFL determined in the aftermath of that decision not to take action against McCoy.

Now, in the aftermath of McCoy paying $55,000 to Ronald Butler for injuries the off-duty police officer sustained in the fight, the league tells PFT that it will not be revisiting the case.

It’s the latest confusing spin of what has become, essentially, a roulette wheel of potential Personal Conduct Policy justice. In the Ezekiel Elliott case, the league determined in the absence of a criminal or civil case that sufficient evidence existed to conclude that Elliott had violated the Personal Conduct Policy. It became clear during that episode that the standard of proof utilized by the NFL is similar to, if not actually lower than, the civil-court bar of “preponderance of the evidence” (i.e., more likely than not).

In McCoy’s case, the civil justice system has determined that McCoy committed sufficient misconduct to justify a cash payment of $55,000. It’s not a settlement but a finding by an arbitrator of enough evidence to believe that McCoy was responsible for violence inflicted on another, and that McCoy should pay $55,000 as compensation for the injuries.

So why won’t the league look at the case? It could be another example of the league’s determination not to look for ways to take talented players off the field. It also could be, frankly, that the post-Ray Rice/Greg Hardy NFL acts far more zealously when the player is accused of misconduct against a woman.

Regardless, this is the first time that a player has been deemed by an external judicial proceeding to have committed violence against another person, and the league has decided to look the other way. The practical result is to make an already confusing internal system of justice even more vague and ambiguous.