NFL has first month free of player arrests since 2009

You don't need a brief list at the top of a blog post to remind you of the NFL's worst shamings of the past few years. Everyone is more than aware of the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases that have stained the league over the past year, as well as the litany of arrests that preceded them over the course of many, many years.

According to USA Today, the last NFL player to be arrested was the 49ers' Aldon Smith, for hitting a parked car while driving under the influence of alcohol. But that was all the way back on August 6, giving the NFL a distinction for the month of September it hasn't achieved since 2009.

Mike Rosenberg of the San Jose Mercury News also reported that this was the second month during Roger Goodell's tenure as commissioner that the phenomenon has occurred, the other being July 2009 (On August 5, 2009, the streak was broken when Eagles defensive end Juqua Parker was the passenger in a car that was pulled over in Bethlehem for a traffic violation and was arrested on accusations of marijuana possession).

It is also the first month in 15 years that the NFL had an arrest-free month during the season. Perhaps players are learning from their mistakes - or, 60% of them are, anyway.