Domestic Violence Allegations: An "Unpleasant Piece of Status Quo for the NFL"

At Slate, Robert Weintraub notes some unfortunate Super Bowl trivia: "The big game's two biggest stars, [Santonio] Holmes and [Larry] Fitzgerald, have both been accused of domestic assault." So why aren't we talking about it?

Larry Fitzgerald, after all, was one of the feel-good stories of the game. There was a plenty of focus on his personal life — mostly his relationship with his father, a veteran sports writer who said he would refuse to cheer for his son from the press box, on principle. So sweet!

What barely got any mention was that the mother of Fitzgerald's child, former Raiders cheerleader Angela Nazario, has accused him of domestic abuse, and filed for an order of protection against him. Nazario claimed that, during an altercation where she "may have hit [Fitzgerald] in the face," he retaliated and "grabbed me by my hair with both hands on the back of my head very very hard and tossed me across the room." According to Nazario, she hit her head on their marble floor and lost "chunks of her hair“ in the assault.

Then there's Holmes (pictured), The Philadelphia Inquirer's "man of the hour", whose troubles hail from further back. In 2006 Holmes' girlfriend, Lashae Boone, told police Holmes became angry and started "choking [her], throwing her to the ground ... and slamming her into a door." The charges were later dropped and Holmes agreed to go into a treatment center. "It doesn't mean anger-management classes," he told the press. "It just means I needed someone else to talk with about all the situations and to get an understanding of what was going on."

Dropped charges are dropped charges. And I'm not one to call for a citizen conviction of this guys based on unproven allegations. But, given the amount of press coverage and hero worship heaped on these football stars, doesn't the fact that they both have faced abuse allegations seem worth discussing, beyond Weintraub's aside that, "Perhaps Holmes can stop off for counseling on the way to Disneyland?"

The QB That Saved Pittsburgh [Slate]