Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs got what he wanted in that his legal troubles tied to battery and criminal damage to property charges involving his ex-girlfriend are now adjudicated. Now comes the NFL suspension part.
Jacobs on Thursday pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property.
“I fully understand the seriousness of the situation and I take full responsibility,” Jacobs said in addressing the bench.
“With this agreement, Josh has accepted responsibility for his conduct and resolved this matter,” Jacobs attorneys David Z. Chesnoff, Richard A. Schonfeld and Clarence F Duchac said in a statement provided to OutKick.
“Today’s resolution is set against a career-long history of Josh’s community work while in the NFL, which has centered on the circumstances of his early life.”
Jacobs, currently suspended on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s exempt list, now must wait for a completion of the league’s review of his actions within its Personal Conduct Policy.
The NFL told OutKick it has no timetable for concluding its review of the Jacobs situation and Jacobs remains on the exempt list.
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Jacobs’ no contest pleas, in which he accepts responsibility for his actions, and the video evidence of the battery the Brown County District Attorney had in his possession as evidence of that incident, strongly suggest he will be suspended.
The exempt list suspension means Jacobs is being paid this week. A suspension under the Personal Conduct Policy would be without pay.
A first-time offense for battery involving physical force carries a baseline suspension of six games under the league’s Personal Conduct Policy, although the NFL can reduce that if there are strong cooperative or mitigating circumstances.
Either way, Jacobs is very likely going to be away from his team beyond missing the Packers’ Sunday’s regular-season opener against the Minnesota Vikings.
Jacobs was warned by the judge early on during Thursday’s court proceedings that the court would treat his pleas of no contest as if they were pleas of guilty.
Jacobs told the judge he understood that.
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The court, in accepting Jacobs’ pleas of no contest, then ordered Jacobs to pay a $1,000 fine for the battery charge and as to the criminal damage to property charge he must over the next 12 months:
If Jacobs fails to meet all those requirements, he can be returned to court and found guilty on the charges, each of which carries a nine-month maximum sentence in county jail and a $10,000 fine.
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Jacobs obviously wanted to move this process forward because the original court hearing was set for November, and he didn’t wish to remain suspended until then. He then pleaded no contest to avoid a trial that, again, would take time from him and keep him away from his team.
The resolution clears a path for Jacobs to rejoin the Packers earlier than the original November court date would have permitted. That return, however, remains far from imminent if the NFL moves forward with additional discipline.
