Packers star Josh Jacobs appears in court to enter plea over battery arrest just three days before Green Bay’s season opener

Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs appeared in court on Thursday for his first hearing on two misdemeanor charges stemming from a May altercation with his girlfriend. 

Jacobs entered a no contest plea to misdemeanor charges of battery and criminal damage to property, according to The Athletic. 

The football star was ordered by the court to avoid contacting the victim, attend counseling and pay restitution to the victim. His attorney said that Jacobs has already voluntarily begun counseling. 

He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine on the misdemeanor battery charge.  

‘I fully understand the seriousness of the situation and I take full responsibility,’ Jacobs said in a brief statement. 

The hearing came three days before the Green Bay Packers are set to open their 2026 NFL season against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. 

The NFL has placed Jacobs on the commissioner’s exempt list, which prevents the three-time Pro Bowl running back from playing or practicing but allows him to keep receiving a paycheck.

The NFL made that move on August 30, three days after Brown County District Attorney David Lasee announced that Jacobs was being charged with battery and criminal damage to property.

Upon request and with the club’s permission, players on the commissioner’s exempt list may be allowed at the facility for meetings, individual workouts, therapy and rehabilitation and other nonfootball activities.

The NFL is investigating Jacobs’s situation and he could be suspended by the league. Any games he misses while on the exempt list would count toward his suspension, but he would have to repay the money he earned during that time.

Jacobs was arrested May 26, three days after Hobart-Lawrence police officers came to his home to investigate a disturbance. Police said Jacobs’s girlfriend told them she had a lump on her head as a result of Jacobs’s actions.

According to police, the woman said she had been looking through Jacobs’s phone and saw he was talking to other women, and that she threw the phone in anger without breaking it. She told police that Jacobs had her phone and she told him he could look through it.

Police said the woman indicated she tried to retrieve her phone from Jacobs, but he grabbed her arm and began a struggle that lasted several minutes. They left the home in separate vehicles before eventually returning.

According to police, the woman was trying to exit a garage door when Jacobs grabbed her and threw her to the ground, causing her to hit her head. Police said Jacobs also took the phone from her while she was on the ground.

The criminal complaint says surveillance footage from the camera system in the garage backed up the woman’s statement.

The former Alabama and Las Vegas Raiders running back joined the Packers in 2014

More to follow.