Public pressure in the NFL and Congress: An oppressive motivator of unjust outcomes

Abstract

This paper will analyze the NFL and Congressional policies surrounding sexual assault and their susceptibility to public pressure. First, it will examine the concept of public pressure. Second, the paper will detail the NFL Personal Conduct Policy (the system of rules used in disciplinary action brought against players) and analyze the changes to the system. The paper will then move to a history and analysis of the sexual assault policies in Congress. This paper brings statistics to describe the overarching problems that each system addresses in Congress and the NFL. After both systems are adequately detailed and broader statistics are analyzed, the paper turns to an analysis of individual cases, both of members of Congress and NFL players. In each case detailed in this work, the goal is to understand the system’s workings in that case and analyze the effects that public pressure may have had on the disciplinary outcomes. After analyzing the systems and their impact on specific individuals, the paper explores the virtue of systems that maintain safeguards to ensure that public pressure does not decide their outcomes. Last, the paper advises the NFL and Congress on updates to their systems which aim to increase their resistance to public pressure. (from Introduction)