Former NFL player Warren Sapp will not face misdemeanor domestic battery charges despite being accused in February of choking a woman and throwing her down on a couch in a Miami Beach hotel.
From ESPN.com:
Sapp was arrested the day before Super Bowl XLIV for allegedly choking a woman in his Florida hotel room. At the time, the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer and Oakland Raider was working as an analyst for the NFL Network’s game coverage, but was pulled off the air when his arrest came to light.
A female acquaintance of Sapp alleged that she had an altercation with him around 6 a.m. on Feb. 6 at the Shore Club Hotel in Miami Beach, where Sapp was staying while working for the NFL Network. The accuser told police detectives that she and her friends were partying with Sapp at the hotel when she grew tired and asked Sapp for his room key.
The woman said Sapp came to the room a few hours later, woke her up and they began to argue. According to the arrest affidavit, the woman claimed Sapp choked her, pushed her down on a couch, grabbed her by her shirt and neck and threw her down again. The affidavit also stated the accuser had a swollen knee and bruises on her neck.
Sapp had told investigators that he let the woman stay in his room but asked her to leave a few hours later. Sapp said she fell on her leg when he tried to help her get off a couch.
Sapp hasn’t appeared on Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” or the NFL Network since the altercation and I wonder whether or not either network would allow him to come back. Legally he did nothing wrong, but this is something that could potentially ruin his television career if the networks feel as though he’s too much of a risk to keep on their payroll.