Bears defensive back Deiondre’ Hall was suspended for the first game of the regular season for violating the NFL’s policy for a substance of abuse, the team announced Monday afternoon.
Hall will be able to practice with the Bears and play in preseason games until then. If he makes the team, he’ll be forced to sit out a week before returning to the active roster Sept. 10, the day after the season-opener against the Packers.
The Northern Iowa alum has played safety, cornerback and special teams since being drafted in the fourth round in 2016. He played eight games as a rookie. After beginning last season on injured reserve with a hamstring injury, he appeared in two games.
In February, he received six months’ probation after pleading guilty to disorderly conduct and public intoxication following an incident on March 26, 2017, in which he was removed from Sharky’s Funhouse, a bar in Cedar Falls, Iowa. A female officer tased Hall’s left leg to get him to cooperate.
Hall’s versatility — the Bears list him as their backup safety, but drafted him as a cornerback — makes him a candidate to stick with the team as a reserve as a special-teamer. Deon Bush and DeAndre Houston-Carson, also members of the 2016 draft class, also can play behind starting safeties Eddie Jackson and Adrian Amos.
Hall played 31 snaps Saturday against the Broncos. He was flagged for unnecessary roughness on a third-quarter punt.
Hall is the first Bears player suspended for a substance of abuse — not a performance-enhancer — since receiver Jalen Saunders in 2015.
