Roger Goodell has weighed in on the case of Chicago Bears DL Tank Johnson, and he’s getting an eight-game suspension, with a serious shot at getting it knocked down to six games for good behavior. But, he will be able to practice with the team and participate in pre-season games prior to the season. I presume that most of Goodell’s benevolence and mercy on the latter terms are due to the fact that Johnson has already served 60 days of jail time and has been nothing less than contrite and apologetic about his violation of his probation.
So what?
I thought this was the new NFL, where we had a no tolerance standard, no matter how much remorse shown. You’re telling me that a guy who hasn’t been convicted gets a stronger penalty than someone who actually had to spend time in jail, that the legal system found guilty in a court of law? We all knew that Johnson wasn’t getting anywhere near Pacman Jones-level suspension time, but it’s Goodell’s standard that he set with a full season and very little contact. He should be held to it.
Filed under: NFL, police blotter | Tagged: Tank Johnson
The PA has to sue at some point, don’t they? How can they not?
They won’t. Bryant Gumbel’s “Upshaw’s Leash” remark on Inside the NFL was more accurate than we would like to believe.
Well, something has to happen. There are plenty of smart players and player-reps in the league. Someone has to see that this guy is arbitrarily infringing on their livelihoods w/ his bullshit, unwritten CoC policy.
One thing that always amazes me is when fans hold to a belief that players have some sort of god-given RIGHT to play football. It’s a job. And if you stuff up enough times in your job, you’re held accountable. Finally, pro-athletes are as well.
I agree that Goodell’s not being terribly consistent, and Vick is the one that is really benefiting from this (wrote an article on that in my blog)… still the benefit of not following a set precedent is that you’re (the commish) not locked into a set response for each
infraction.
http://withmalice.wordpress.com/
Just one more example (of which we’ll see many, many more) of why it is an awful idea to let one man subjectively lay down punishments. There is no standard beyond one man’s opinion, and that can lead to all sorts of trouble.
I would only assume that the lesser punishment is due to the jail term, and I’m actually okay with it. The reason Goodell is handing out this punishments isn’t to punish the players — it’s to rehabilitate the image of the league. In that sense, the issue wasn’t so much that fans hated that players were doing bad things. We’re not stupid. We just don’t like it when they’re doing profoundly shitty things without absolutely any recourse. Punishment is punishment, then. Which is worse, 60 days in jail or being suspended for eight games when you’re already a millionaire?
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