Patriots Jabrill Peppers put on leave by NFL after drug and assault arrest

The NFL placed Patriots captain and safety Jabrill Peppers on the commissioner’s exempt list after he was arrested on strangulation and cocaine possession charges following an altercation with his girlfriend in Braintree, Mass., on Saturday.Peppers, who pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Monday, may not practice or attend games while on the list.

“I just want to be clear — any act of domestic violence is unacceptable for us as a team, whether you’re a player, staff member.We’re wholeheartedly against any type of domestic violence.

I know the organization’s position, which I fully support,” first-year head coach Jerod Mayo said Wednesday.“With that being said, I do think that Jabrill has to continue to go through due process.We’ll see how that works out.

The league has put him on the exempt list, and that will give us time to gather more information going forward.At this time, he is not in the building and we’ll talk about that at a later time.

As a father of three daughters, I definitely understand the seriousness of the allegations and hopefully they’re not true.”The commissioner’s exempt list is “a special player list available to clubs only in unusual circumstances,” per NFL rules.“The List includes those players who have been declared by the Commissioner [Roger Goodell] to be temporarily exempt from counting within the Active List limit.” Only Goodell can remove players from the list and determine how long they are on it.

Peppers, who turned 29 on Friday, was arrested on multiple charges when police responded to a disturbance call at a residence at 4:15 a.m.Saturday involving an altercation between Peppers and his girlfriend, according to a police report.

In it, the caller said Peppers “hit her, choked her, took off her clothing and put her outside.” The woman, who told police she and the former Giant were dating “on and off for a few years,” was treated for injuries to her face and knees at the scene.Peppers...