3 longest bans the NFL has placed on players in league history

The NFL, like all other sporting organizations, hands out punishments to its players, coaches and teams for indescresions. From suspensions that last a game, four games and sometimes an entire season, the league has protocols in place for certain situations.

Some can simply be fines to a player, coach, or organization for a minor incident, but what about the ones that bring the league into disreptue or question the integrity of the NFL? When that happens, the bans can be severe.

So what are the three longest bans the NFL has placed on players in its long and storied history?

#3 - Frank Flichock - Lifetime ban

One thing that all leagues try and protect with the full force of money and lawyers etc is the integrity of the entire competition. For the NFL, a global icon of the sports world and some say the biggest sport on the planet, integrity is number one on the list of things to protect.

Frank Flichock was a New York Giants quarterback back in 1947 and did the unspeakable. The quarterback was found to have accepted bribes in a bid to try and match fix the 1946 NFL Championship game.

Funnily enough, the Giants lost to the Chicago Bears 24-14

#2 - Rae Carruth - Lifetime ban

Carruth playing for the Panthers. Photo via Complex Sports Twitter

It was perhaps one of the most shocking stories in league history. Carruth was suspended by the league indefinitely after he was charged and convicted of several crimes.

They included a conspiracy to take the life of his then-girlfriend. The most disturbing part of that is that the woman was pregnant with his child. Carruth would go on to serve 18 years in jail and was released in 2018.

There have been reports that he hired a hitman to kill her simply because she was pregnant. His son, Chancellor, has brain damage and cerebral palsy. Carruth never played in the league again.

#1 - Merle Hapes- Lifetime ban

The newspaper breaking the bribery scandal.

The partner in crime to Frank Flichock. The pair were suspended for life after a bribery scandal broke out over the 1946 Championship game. It is thought that both Hapes and Flichock took bribes from Alvin Paris, a well-known gambler.

The pair were reportedly offered money for the Bears to win by at least ten points in the game. Both played for the Giants and miraculously, the Bears did win by ten points, 24-14. Coincidence? The NFL didn't think so.