Michael Hall was earning plaudits from teammates and coaches in his first seaso on the Browns defensive line. But now wat? (Cleveland Browns)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
The Browns head into their most important week of training camp with their top draft choice, native Clevelander Michael Hall, facing a charge of domestic violence.
Hall pleaded not guilty Tuesday at an arraignment in Avon Municipal Court and was released from jail on a $10,000 personal bond. A court hearing on the case is schedule for September 10 – two days after the team’s opening game against the Dallas Cowboys.
Hall was arrested on Tuesday morning after he allegedly put a gun to the head of his fiancée and threatened to kill her during a domestic dispute on Monday night, according to Avon police.
A source told TheLandOnDemand on Tuesday afternoon that the Browns had not decided if Hall would be allowed to participate in joint practices with the Minnesota Vikings, which will be held on the club’s CrossCountry Mortgage Campus fields on Wednesday and Thursday.
The source said the team was still gathering facts of the incident.
Hall will be subject to NFL discipline under terms of the league’s personal conduct policy. The league ordinarily waits for the judicial process to play out before handing down a suspension. An arrest, however, is a violation of the policy.
The Browns could exempt Hall from immediate activities with the team and even suspend him for conduct detrimental to the team.
But under the regime of GM Andrew Berry, the Browns generally have been slow and generous in disciplining players for off-the-field indiscretions.
Last July, Berry waived defensive tackle Perrion Winfrey, a fourth-round draft pick in 2022, after police listed him as a suspect in an aggravated robbery incident.
It wasn’t Winfrey’s first indiscretion, though.
Winfrey previously was charged with misdemeanor assault in an incident in Harris County (TX) and also was involved in a robbery at gunpoint outside a downtown Cleveland club with Greg Newsome.
Winfrey was a developmental player, at best. Hall was a second-round choice in the 2024 draft and most recently was compared by Browns defensive end Za’Darius Smith -- albeit overly generously --to future Hall of Fame Rams tackle Aaron Donald.
Hall was not considered an immediate contributor as a rookie. Injuries to tackles Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris, however, gave Hall the opportunity to earn early play time in preseason.
Hall is a native of Garfield Heights and finished his prep career at Streetsboro High School before moving on to Ohio State.
He was the 54th overall player taken in the 2024 draft and qualified in the NFL rookie salary system for a four-year contract worth $7.069 million, of which $4.379 million is guaranteed.
There were character questions about Hall in the draft process.
A lot of them had to do with maturity. But after news of Hall’s arrest spread, a former NFL team executive texted me and wrote, “Mike Hall was off a lot of teams [draft] boards … this is not a surprise. He has been a bad character guy and everyone knew it.”
According to the Avon police incident report, an argument developed between Hall and his fiancée about his fiancee’s daughter, whose biological father is not Hall. Eventually, Hall demanded his fiancée to leave and threw her belongings outside the home.
Hall shoved her and after she sat on the floor, Hall dragged her by the feet out of the door and down the driveway, according to police. When the woman went back inside the home, Hall pushed her up a staircase toward a second-floor bedroom. When the woman sought to leave the house, Hall grabbed a handgun, put it to her temple and threatened to kill her, according to the incident report.
The woman fled the home. With her mother beside her, she atched Hall drive away.
The woman’s mother also told police she saw Hall hit her daughter in the head with a baby bottle, drag her outside, choke her, push her head through a wall, and break open a bedroom door.
Avon officers also found two handguns in the residence.