NFL Players Behaving Badly

It’s been a tipsy six months for NFL players in the area. Former Redskins cornerback Fred Smoot was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in DC in December. Tennessee Titans linebacker Moise Fokou got a DUI after leaving a District nightclub in January. In May, Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Cody Grimm was arrested for public intoxication in Leesburg. We recommend that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell institute three new penalties this season:

Fred Smoot. Photograph by Ron Sachs/Newscom.

Double Drinking: 5 Yards

Grimm, a 26-year-old former Virginia Tech star, is the son of ex-Redskins lineman Russ Grimm. The younger Grimm’s May 26 public-intoxication arrest came less than three months after he was arrested in Christiansburg, Virginia, for—you got it—public intoxication.

Fumbling the Tags: 10 Yards

Smoot, 34, who played seven seasons for the Skins, once used an analogy to describe his defensive-back prowess: “Two-thirds of the world is covered by water. The other third is covered by Fred Smoot.” However, he couldn’t cover his license plates. When Capitol Police pulled him over for driving his Audi A7 with no tags, Smoot claimed his temporary tags had gotten snow on them and were wet.

Inexcusable Excuse: 15 Yards

Fokou, 27, played football at Bullis School and the University of Maryland. A Park Police officer pulled him over after seeing him drive his BMW at high speed and across the street’s solid double yellow lines. Fokou said his car “just takes off sometimes,” the officer reported.

This article appears in the July 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.

Luke Mullins

Senior Writer

Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.