The news broke on Wednesday that San Diego Seals forward Austin Staats had been arrested earlier this month and charged with several counts of assault, assault with choking, forcible confinement, and a couple of others. Staats was also arrested for aggravated assault in October of last year, so this isn’t his first offense.

Staats is no stranger to this kind of controversy. He’s been suspended several times by the NLL, most recently in the 2024 playoffs where a cross-check to another player’s head resulted in a seven-game suspension to start the 2025 season. He missed the first two games of the 2023 season because of an incident in the last game of the 2022 season as well. And he had his contract terminated by the PLL in June 2021 after a off-field fight (where he bit another player). A year later, the PLL said that he had completed “a program organized by the PLL’s Discipline and Conduct Committee” and was reinstated. He played two games that same month and hasn’t played in the PLL since.

It seems clear that Staats has anger issues. Obviously whatever program the PLL made him attend had no effect. His NLL suspension in 2024 came with about ten seconds left in the last game that the Seals played, when it was clear they were going to lose to the FireWolves. I wrote about this at the time, including the details on an unfair call on him earlier in the game as well as the call near the end that got him suspended. I said that we should “start thinking about whether the pluses of having him on your roster outweigh the minuses”, and that the answer at the time was “probably yes”. Now he’s been suspended seven games so he’ll miss almost half of next season. Given this arrest, he may not be able to make the rest of the games either.

I think the time has come for the NLL to cut ties entirely.

The Seals should release Staats and the NLL needs to ban him from the league. This is not as punishment for being arrested, it’s about player safety. He’s already been suspended multiple times from multiple lacrosse leagues, and arrested at least twice for violent crimes. If you saw the cross-check to the head of Anthony Joaquim, who was not involved in the play at all until Staats hit him, it was obvious that Staats had simply lost control.

Yes, I realize that this is unfair to the Seals. It would suck huge for Seals fans, but also for NLL fans in general. There’s no question that Staats is an incredibly talented player and when he’s on his game, there may be nobody in the league more fun to watch. But we’ve also seen that at any time, he could snap and cross-check someone in the head for no reason other than he’s pissed about something.

There’s also the issue of what kind of image the league wants to project. Is having Staats in the league important enough that they are willing to be seen as saying “yeah but he’s a big star so we’ll look the other way”? Or do they want to send the message that no matter how big a star you are, this behaviour is unacceptable?

Is it possible I’m overreacting? Sure. Maybe a lifetime ban is too harsh. Perhaps he needs to be out of the league for, say, two seasons and then can apply for reinstatement. If he’s arrested again in that time, game over. If he’s reinstated and gets suspended again, game over. Maybe he needs to be forced away from the game he so clearly loves so that he will take his anger management issues seriously. But as I said, this is not his first, second, or even third offense. Austin is a passionate player, but that passion combined with anger issues makes him a powderkeg that could go off at any time. Thankfully, Joaquim wasn’t seriously hurt but the next guy may not be so lucky.

I don’t know if the league or the NLLPA has some kind of program where they will pay for counselling or therapy or something similar that will help Austin. I really hope he is able to get the help he needs.