NFL sets tougher conduct policy

For decades, the NFL has spent its time, money and energy in transforming fall Sundays into pro football showcases.

Now, the league has turned its attention to the other six days of the week.

Determined to make players and teams more accountable for off-field transgressions, Commissioner Roger Goodell enacted a more punitive conduct policy Tuesday, one that allows the NFL to punish repeat violators even before the legal system does.

Shortly before announcing his new policy, Goodell suspended Tennessee cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones for the 2007 season and Cincinnati receiver Chris Henry for the first half of it. Both cases were reviewed under the former policy, and both players will forfeit salaries, Jones his entire $1,292,500, and Henry $217,500, half of the $435,000 he was scheduled to make.

The revised policy is broader and will allow for longer suspensions and larger fines for offending players, and the potential for penalties against teams. Although Goodell did not detail team penalties, the league has discussed taking draft picks from clubs that fail to conform.

“We hold ourselves to higher standards of responsible conduct because of what it means to be part of the National Football League,” Goodell said in a release. “We have long had policies and programs designed to encourage responsible behavior, and this policy is a further step in ensuring that everyone who is part of the NFL meets that standard.”

Since being selected in the first round of the 2005 draft, Jones has been arrested at least five times and interviewed by police five more.

His most recent run-in occurred during NBA All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. Police there have recommended felony and misdemeanor charges against him stemming from a shooting outside a strip club that left one man paralyzed. The investigation is ongoing.

Henry, one of nine Bengals arrested last season, was locked up four times in a 14-month period during 2005 and 2006 in Florida, Kentucky and Ohio.

Goodell met with Jones and Henry last week and later wrote in a letter to each of them:

“Your conduct has brought embarrassment and ridicule upon yourself, your club and the NFL, and has damaged the reputation of players throughout the league. You have put in jeopardy an otherwise promising NFL career, and have risked both your own safety and the safety of others through your off-field actions.... Taken as a whole, this conduct warrants significant sanction.”

The Titans and Bengals said they supported the penalties, which require the players to apply for reinstatement within a month of each suspension’s end.

A league suspension is probably in the works as well for Chicago defensive tackle Terry “Tank” Johnson, who is a month into his 120-day sentence in Cook County jail on a weapons conviction.

Besides strengthening its bad-behavior policy, the league will intensify its rookie symposium, required for all new draft picks, and establish a mandatory annual life-skills program for all players.

Among the other elements of the policy:

* All players will participate in mandatory briefings each year by local law enforcement representatives, covering possession of guns, drinking and driving, domestic disputes and other matters, including gang-related activities in the community.

* Each team will be required to implement a program to educate employees and players about laws related to drinking and driving.

* Players suspended under terms of the policy must earn their way back to active status by fully complying with professional counseling and treatment, including regular evaluations.

Mike Haynes, the league’s vice president of player and employee development, said the new policy “changes things a lot” and probably would affect the way teams select free agents and draft picks.

“It used to be that you’d take a guy because, ‘Wow! He’s fast!’ or ‘He’s got great talent,’ ” Haynes said. “But now it’s, ‘Can we work with this guy?’ It’s going to change the way things happen.”

NFL coaches say they are overwhelmingly in support of stricter penalties for bad behavior.

“People are tired of getting up in the morning and picking up the paper and reading about somebody in trouble,” Washington Coach Joe Gibbs said at the owners’ meetings last month. “I think the general climate right now in the league is to do something about it. Let’s face it. The only way you’re going to get people’s attention is, you’ve got to be strong.”

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sam.farmer@latimes.com