At 13 years old and you’re around crime, you’re going to be a criminal. New York Jets wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, who served time in a youth detention center in California before attending the University of Southern California on a football scholarship. Although the authors did not treat NFL spokesperson Greg Aiello’s reference to “half of our players” being criminals as any sort of actual confession on his part, it is nonetheless true that the NFL has a much greater handle on the scope of its players’ criminal histories than anyone else does. Consider that despite all of the crimes reported in Chapter 1, the authors did not have access to crimes committed by NFL players in their juvenile years—the fastest growing age group category for violent crime in America. It is virtually impossible to determine how many NFL players have serious juvenile criminal records. Few states collect reliable juvenile crime statistics, and even fewer states make juveniles’ criminal histories a matter of public record.
