‘Law & Order: SVU’ season 16 spoilers: First look at ‘Walking Dead’s’ Chad Coleman

“Law & Order: SVU” has just wrapped up their crossover event, but that does not mean even remotely that the big stories are over for the time being.

Instead, next week’s episode features a story with a ripped-from-the-headlines quality, given that you have a tale of an athlete, and a woman who chooses to stay with him and support him despite some video footage leaking of him assaulting her. We discuss more of the plot of this here, and the comparisons that are obvious between this and the Ray Rice incident. The biggest difference is that the main character here, played by Chad Coleman from “The Walking Dead,” is a former pro athlete who now works in broadcasting.

Meagan Good plays the woman at the center of the scandal, and the photo above seems to be the two characters presenting a united front publicly. Does this mean that this front is the same behind closed doors? That’s what we are going to be waiting to find out.

This is the second episode of the season that has targeted the sporting world in some way; the earlier episode featured a current athlete, and a case that seemed to be combined from the Rice scandal, the incident between Jay-Z and Solange Knowles, and Donald Sterling’s racist remarks. The show and its stars have become very involved in trying to change the culture in the world of sports; a number of domestic violence PSAs featuring Mariska Hargitay and some athletes have even aired during NFL broadcasts.

Given the quality of the performers in this episode, we definitely have some high hopes. Coleman was front and center for “The Grove,” which remains our favorite episode of “The Walking Dead” to date.

Photo: NBC