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Pro Bowl defensive tackle hit with multiple accusations of sexual assault

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In a troubled NFL offseason that’s seen a slew of sexual assault allegations, it seems as if another day brings with it another sordid case.

The latest player facing allegations is Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who has been sued for sexual assault by not one, but two women.

In one suit, a woman claims the alleged deed was done Bill Cosby-style in a hotel in Houston on April 7. The victim claims she was unconscious and was therefore unable to give consent. When she woke up, Dareus told her they had engaged in sex.

The lawsuit also includes the victim saying she contracted an STD from Dareus, who she says did not disclose the fact he was infected.

A second suit was filed by a woman in Florida in January 2017. The woman claims she met Dareus — who was in Tampa as part of ESPN’s coverage of the college football national championship game — at a private party that included approximately a dozen strippers and was attended by approximately 40 people, including other unnamed NFL players.

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The woman alleges there was an incident where, without her consent, Dareus grabbed her breast and attempted to put his hands between her legs.

The allegations will surprise many fans because Dareus was supposed to be one of the good guys the NFL could point to as “not all our players are monsters.”

He spent more than $100,000 of his own money to build a wing on a school in Haiti.

He has a charitable foundation that is dedicated to turning a war-torn and natural disaster-ravaged country into something resembling a beacon of civilization in the Caribbean.

Should Marcell Dareus be suspended for more than the 4 games Tom Brady got for Deflategate?

No criminal charges have been filed in connection with the allegations made by either of the women, with just the civil lawsuits in the offing for the time being.

Dareus has a hearing Aug. 9 in Florida’s Hillsborough County on a motion to dismiss the suit filed by the Florida woman.

The big question right now is what the Jaguars and the NFL are going to do when they get wind of this story.

We just saw Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston penalized three games for groping an Uber driver, after all.

Will the Jaguars go to bat for a key part of a defense that nearly got to the Super Bowl last season? It’s a lot easier to throw a guy like Winston, 3-10 as a starting quarterback last year, under the bus than it is to throw a Pro Bowl wall-busting defender into the path of public transportation.

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And commissioner Roger Goodell’s been under fire for, in the eyes of a lot of women’s groups, basically saying that letting the air out of a football is worthy of a harsher punishment than treating the private parts of a non-consenting woman as one’s personal playground.

The league is facing terrible optics and flagging ratings, which is why Dareus might just find himself at the center of a need for the commissioner to make an example of someone.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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