Updated

Updated · TMJ4 News · Sep 10

Josh Jacobs Pleads No Contest to Battery, Stays on NFL Exempt List After May 23 Incident

Updated

Updated · TMJ4 News · Sep 10

Josh Jacobs Pleads No Contest to Battery, Stays on NFL Exempt List After May 23 Incident

Q: Will the league's final punishment reflect the disturbing surveillance evidence, or just the mild court ruling?

The NFL’s punishment is more likely to reflect its own fact-finding — including the surveillance evidence and police file — not just the relatively light misdemeanor outcome in court. That is how the league’s personal conduct policy typically works. The NFL is not bound by criminal plea deals or by whether a case ends in a misdemeanor, diversion, or no contest plea. In domestic-violence cases, the policy has generally called for a baseline six-game suspension for a first offense, though actual penalties can vary depending on the evidence and the league’s assessment. Here, the searched reporting matters. Multiple accounts say surveillance video and forensic review supported key parts of the woman’s allegations, including that Jacobs grabbed her, threw her to the ground, and damaged her phone. If the league finds that evidence credible, it has a stronger basis to discipline him beyond what the court judgment alone might suggest. At the same time, the final number of games could still look smaller in practical terms because time on the Commissioner’s Exempt List can be credited toward a later suspension under the collective bargaining agreement. So even if the NFL imposes a meaningful suspension on paper, Jacobs may not miss many additional games after the ruling. The most likely outcome is that the league cites the underlying conduct, not the mild court disposition, but structures the penalty in a way that accounts for the games already lost on paid leave.

3 articles · Updated · TMJ4 News · Sep 10

Brown County Judge Marc Hammer accepted Jacobs’ no contest plea Thursday and found the Packers running back guilty of misdemeanor battery, resolving the criminal case at what had been scheduled as his initial appearance.
May 23 allegations at Jacobs’ Hobart home led to battery and property-damage charges after prosecutors said an argument with a woman turned physical and garage surveillance footage corroborated parts of her account.
The NFL said there is no change to Jacobs’ status on the commissioner’s exempt list, where he has remained since August and cannot practice or play while the league reviews the case under its personal conduct policy.
Defense attorney Jeffrey Kippa, who was not involved in the case, called the same-day resolution unusual because misdemeanor cases typically take six months to a year, though he said the outcome itself looked standard for a first-time defendant.