This is why they pay Roger Goodell the big bucks. For a commissioner who
quickly gained a reputation as a strict disciplinarian after taking over for
Paul Tagliabue in August 2006 by throwing suspensions at his league’s
miscreants like so many nickels and dimes, the decision he makes regarding
punishment (or potentially, lack thereof) for Pittsburgh Steelers
quarterback Ben Roethlisberger may be the trickiest one that he’s had to
make.
People are quick to compare Roethlisberger’s situation to those of Adam
“Pacman” Jones, the late Chris Henry, and Michael Vick (I’ll throw Tank
Johnson in there, too). These are all guys that got the hammer dropped on
their careers by Goodell (and Vick by the federal government) in a summer of
2007 that was Goodell’s disciplinary equivalent of the “settling all family
business scene” at the end of The Godfather. The only thing missing was
the commissioner holding a baby and renouncing Satan during a baptism
ceremony as the suspensions got handed down.
But really other than the sheer stupidity of everyone involved, the
comparisons of Roethlisberger to the Criminal Class of 2007 don’t hold much
water if you examine them closely enough and avoid generalizing all of them
as “those NFL boys behaving badly.”
While the details of Roethlisberger’s
exploits on that March evening in Milledgeville, GA have an unsavory feel to
them to be sure, Goodell in some sense has to act based on only what we
KNOW, right?
It’s much easier for Goodell to come in and go all “new sheriff in town” on
everybody if there are some facts that back up his clean-up efforts; the
facts are not nearly as generous to his cause in the Roethlisberger case as
they were in the Jones, Henry, Johnson and Vick cases.
Let’s outline what
we knew as FACT for each of those players, shall we?
ADAM “PACMAN” JONES
— In July 2005, Jones was arrested for assault and felony vandalism in a
nightclub altercation.
— In August 2006, Jones was arrested for disorderly conduct and public
intoxication.
— In February 2007 at the NBA All Star weekend in Las Vegas, Jones was
part
of an entourage that started a melee at a Las Vegas strip club and one
of
the people in Jones’ group fired a gun into a crowd, hitting three
people
and paralyzing a security guard from the waist down.
— In May 2007, Jones was pulled over for going 79 MPH in a 55 MPH zone
in a
Cadillac that was part of a cocaine bust in 2006 while registered to
Jones.
— After getting reinstated and traded to the Dallas Cowboys, Jones
managed
to get re-suspended by getting into a fist fight with his team-provided
security detail.
CHRIS HENRY
— In December 2005, Henry was arrested with marijuana in his shoes
during a
routine search of his car on a speeding stop.
— A month later, he was arrested in Orlando on gun charges, including
concealment and aggravated assault.
— In April 2006, Henry allowed three underage girls (ages 18, 16 and
15) to
consume alcohol at a Kentucky hotel with him.
— In June 2006, he blew a .092 BAC when he was pulled over on a traffic
stop, .012 over the legal limit.
— In October 2006, he was suspended for two games for violating the
league’s
substance abuse policy.
TANK JOHNSON
— In November 2005, Johnson was arrested in Chicago for possession of a
handgun in his SUV.
— In February 2006, while on probation, Johnson was arrested for
aggravated
assault and resisting arrest.
— In December 2006, police found six guns including two assault rifles
in
Johnson’s home in Gurnee, Illinois. Some of the guns were loaded and there
were
children in the house.
— Two days later, Johnson’s friend and bodyguard Willaim Posey was
killed in
a shooting at the Ice Bar in Chicago during an argument.
(As for Vick, do we really need to detail his transgressions? I mean,
the
guy did go to prison for nearly two years for killing dozens of dogs, so
Goodell piling on after he got out of the clink was not a surprise nor
was
it unwarranted.)
The things I list above are all things that we KNOW to be fact. There’s
nothing nebulous or “he said/she said” about any of the above listed
exploits of the players involved. With that in mind, what do we know to
be
fact about Big Ben and his tomfoolery?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER
— In June 2006, Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle while riding
helmetless with an expired temporary learner’s permit for riding a
motorcycle. He suffered several facial and dental injuries, but nothing
career nor life-threatening.
— In July 2009, a civil suit was filed against Roethlisberger for the
alleged 2008 sexual assault of Andrea McNulty, a worker at Harrah’s in
Lake
Tahoe. McNulty did not file a criminal complaint and has since had a
co-worker come out and say that she was essentially looking for a payday.
— In March 2010, police investigated the alleged sexual assault by
Roethlisberger of a 20-year-old college student in Milledgeville, Georgia at a
local bar. A month later, the district attorney indicated no charges
would
be filed against Roethlisberger, citing a lack of evidence (but also
providing some juicy, non-incriminating details).
— Roethlisberger addressed the media on April 12 with a hideous mullet,
greased back like Razor Ramon. The only thing missing was gold chains
around his neck and a tooth pick in his mouth.
So if you’re keeping score at home, these are the things we KNOW about
the
first group of players: They have all been ARRESTED multiple times
amidst
charges of drugs, alcohol and/or violence that oftentimes involve guns,
and
unfortunately in the case of Jones even involves an actual shooting that
resulted in life-changing injuries for the victim.
These are the things we KNOW about Roethlisberger: He has never been
arrested. He’s not very smart. He’s not very careful. He’s
20-something
years old and likes to hang out in bars with women and tries to pick up
those women in an effort to presumably have relations with them. He’s
basically a meathead douchebag.
So can you be suspended by the NFL if your biggest transgression is
being a
meathead douchebag?
If Goodell chooses to suspend Roethlisberger, the appropriate and
immediate
follow up question needs to be “For what?” According to what we KNOW,
he
hasn’t raped nor assaulted anybody. Hell, he’s never even had his
rights
read to him by an officer of the law. What he has done is nearly kill
himself on a motorcycle, and put himself in position (VIP room at a
club,
buying shots for drunk coeds) for women to easily take a crack at a payday
or, at the very least, misrepresent actual sexual interaction.
If Goodell suspends Roethlisberger even just for one game, he’s
essentially
suspending him for stupidity, and for being a wanna-be frat boy at age
28.
What Goodell would be saying is either (a) he doesn’t believe Ben’s
denials
on the assault charges, or more likely (b) “I’m Roger Goodell, I’ll
suspend
you if I want to suspend you.” It’s one thing to be an extension of or a
follow-up to the work of the actual police; that’s what Goodell was in
the
cases of Jones, Henry, Johnson, and Vick. It’s entirely another to be
the Morality or Stupidity Police, and start handing out suspensions to a guy
for
basically not being very good at clubbing.
Suspending Roethlisberger sets a tricky precedent for Goodell, because
let’s
face it — if you’re going to suspend a guy for what essentially is a
bad
night in a bar (again, this is all we KNOW; we can’t assume anything),
then
he better go ahead and just hire lieutenant commissioners for each team
because Goodell’s going to be awfully busy. That’s why I’ve thought all
along that if a suspension came down for Big Ben, it would be from the
Steelers — one, because it would keep Goodell’s fingerprints off of it,
and
two, it would at least appear as though Santonio Holmes wasn’t the only
one
the team directly made an example of (although, after watching Brandon
Marshall, a dude with as much baggage as Holmes, go for two second-round
picks to Miami, weren’t the Steelers ultimately the losers in all of
that?)
To me the biggest question has yet to be answered — has Ben
Roethlisberger
had his “scared straight” moment yet? For all of the thoughts that
suspending these guys sends a message and cleans them up, Jones just
wound
up getting suspended again, and Henry wound up dying after getting
tossed
off the flatbed of a pickup truck his fiance was driving in an effort to
escape from him. In a bizarre twist, Michael Vick’s going to prison may
have made him the lucky one of the bunch in that it truly did appear to
get
him on the right path.
Has Ben been scared straight? So far the only indication that the
answer is
“maybe” is the fact that he cut his greasy mullet before visiting with
Goodell. Baby steps, I suppose.
Listen to Sean Pendergast on 1560 The Game from 3-7 p.m. weekdays on
the Sean
& John Show, and follow him on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/SeanCablinasian.
This article appears in Apr 15-21, 2010.
