Coming soon to the NFL Network, a remake of "The Longest Yard" starring former league players?

Watching the news this week, you might have occasion to wonder.

On almost every channel there is Aaron Hernandez, tight end formerly in the employ of the New England Patriots, in handcuffs, charged with murder.

And if, by chance — and it is not easy — you happen to miss Hernandez’s stone, cold expressionless face staring back, there is former Cleveland Browns linebacker Ausar Walcott, who is charged with attempted murder.

Faster than you could say damage control, they were excommunicated by their teams, becoming "former" NFLers in a matter of hours after they were charged. A sure sign of the embarrassment they have become for the league that thought it had put such situations behind it after Jovan Belcher’s tragic murder-suicide last year in Kansas City and Ray Lewis’ involvement in a 2000 murder case. (He eventually pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.)

In Hernandez’s case, he is also said to be under investigation in connection with a double murder that took place in 2012. This on top of being accused of having shot a man in the face in a February incident.

At this rate, if the charges are substantiated, Hernandez might contend with mobster James "Whitey" Bulger, who is standing trial for multiple murders in another Massachusetts courtroom.

Throw in former Carolina Panther Rae Carruth, who is serving an 18-year sentence for the execution-style murder of his pregnant girlfriend, and other recent miscreants, and the casting options begin to abound for an enterprising moviemaker.

Perhaps, when compared with another line of work, their penchant for felonies might not be all that much above the national average. In fact, one study by economist Stephen Bonars says the arrest rate of NFL players for all charges over the past decade was 2.9 percent, far lower than the 10.9 percent arrest rate for males in the country ages 22 and 34 in the same period.

Part of it, of course, is that pro football players are in one of the most visible professions going and generate instant headlines and YouTube postings when they wander onto the police blotter. Bakers and candlestick makers not so much.

But then, some NFL teams are more inclined to take chances on some marginal character types if their 40-yard dash times, vertical leaps and other so-called "measureables" are irresistible. The NFL, as we are often reminded, is a production business, and the lengths to which some will go to keep producing victories and titles can stretch the bounds of even "The Patriot Way."

Which is how, you suspect, the much-talented but troubled Hernandez ended up on the Patriots’ roster, a fourth-round pick and 113th overall selection in the 2010 draft. Or, as an AFC scout told the Boston Globe, Hernandez’s "problems were the worst-kept secret in the scouting community."

That’s the kind of recommendation that some movie sequels are made of.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.