During his media session at Steelers camp, Roger Goodell seemed to leave open the possibility that Ben Roethlisberger suspension could be less than four games. Sounds like from the vibe that Goodell is giving and the goodwill he is showing, I would not be shocked if he ends up being sat for just three games.
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DrGeorge
August 5, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Roger Goodell has a political problem of his own making. Because of the earlier discipline meted out to Pacman Jones and Santonio Holmes, some black players look at Ben’s discipline as a measure of racial equality. They are wrong in their view, because Ben’s acts are easily distinguishable: they never reached the level of a crime as in the earlier incidents. Ben merely embarrassed the NFL; the allegations against him were dropped for lack of evidence. However, Goodell treated Ben’s offense as a major one, and now he’s stuck with the minimum suspension he promised — namely four games. If he lightens the punishment for Ben now, he’s going to face a backlash from black players. It would be extremely detrimental to Goodell’s own credibility and to the NFL’s image to reduce Ben’s suspension. As a Steelers fan I don’t like it, and I do think Goodell over-reacted in the heat of Ben’s second sexual misadventure in one year, but Goodell imposed a harsh penalty to send a message across the NFL — it would be a giant political mistake for the Commish to go wobbly on this issue now. Ben won’t be back early.
larry
August 5, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Those three situations were not the same. Both Jones and Holmes were arrested for what they did. It wasn’t just a person saying they did something wrong, they were in handcuffs and arrested.