Don't bet on an early release for Lawrence Phillips

Wait, Coach is making a comeback? Is Dobber coming back or now that he is Patrick on SpongeBob he has become too big.

 

The inequities in the legal system (or simply the lack of backbone by DAs); Phillips is in for over 30 years (before this incident) and Sharper gets 9 for raping 9 women in multiple states!!

 

That headline is a disaster.

 

I was reading the other day about Sharper's plea agreement. There is some crazy shit in there, and there is also some loose language that somewhat implies he might testify against anyone else who was doing the same thing as he was. It will be interesting if the names of any other NFL players come up.

 

Maybe it can be arranged for Sharper and Phillips to be cellmates.

 

Throw Carruth in there too.

 

If any come up? Reggie Bush already had to deny being involved.

 

Carruth will be out in 3 1/2 years. How time flies.

 

And Carruth will probably be back in there in 5 years.

 

I don't know your experience with criminal law, but to try to compare cases across state lines is an exercise in futility. It's the inequity of the system, from one state to the next, and not the fault of the prosecutors. Some of Sharper's charges are in California, but we have no idea how strong that case actually is.

As a former prosecutor, I look at the Sharper deal as a classic too-difficult-to-comply arraignment. Sure he gets his shot at getting out in 10 years, and when he does he'll have to live his life cleaner than a preacher to comply. Go read his deal. The conditions are ridiculous and there are several triggers that could double his actual prison time. And that's on a type of case that is incredibly difficult to prove at trial. Is Sharper's active time too light? Perhaps. But he'll have a hard time complying with it meaning there's a strong probability the suspended time will come into play later. He'll also wear a GPS monitor and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Phillips gambled at trial - twice - and lost. The judge gave him consecutive sentences. That's not the prosecutor's decision.

Sharper is admitting responsibility, saving the victims being re-traumatized through multiple trials, and in return he gets a deal that gives him a shot at not spending the rest of his life in jail, while still living under onerous restrictions. I can live with that.

 

I would bet just about anything that other players were involved. Sharper is one of those guys who players would gravitate toward, or at least it was like that in Green Bay and in Minnesota, so one would assume it was the same way in New Orleans.

 

Oh, it would be much more so in New Orleans than in either Green Bay or Minnesota. N.O. is much, much looser in every way than just about anywhere else in America, it's one of the great party cities in the world and there is just a feeling down there that anything goes, all of which would fuel that sort of behavior on the part of testosterone-drenched/roided-up pro athletes. Not to mention that Saints players are treated like royalty there to probably as great, or greater extent than almost any other major-league city in North America. I'd be surprised if there aren't a fair number of current and former Saints who are sweating bullets right now wondering what kind of testimony Sharper might have to offer after this deal.