anyone but you

I was going to post about NFL Comissioner Roger Goodell and his lackluster enforcement of the new NFL behavior policy last week but didn't end up getting around to doing so. It seems like that may have been a good thing, as I now have even more reason for ranting about it.

I was going to complain about Goodell's inconsistent enforcement of the policy, where players like Chris Henry and Pacman Jones get suspended for having multiple problems (as they should be), but higher profile players like Michael Vick and Joey Porter get preferential treatment. By preferential treatment, I mean that while Goodell was more than happy to suspend Pacman Jones for multiple run-ins with the law--even though Jones had never actually been charged with anything--but when a big moneymaker like Vick gets in trouble, Goodell is content to let things play out in the legal system first. Saying that Vick isn't a repeat offender like Jones is just downright not true; Vick has had more than his share of run-ins with legal authorities and the NFL itself for poor behavior in the past. The only difference is that Vick brings in a lot more money.

Then you have Joey Porter, who assaulted and robbed a fellow NFL player at a casino and merely gets fined for it and is not suspended a single game. Contrast that with today's news that Odell Thurman's request to be reinstated by Goodell after reportedly complying with all the requirements of the league's substance abuse policy was denied by Goodell with no explanation! Thurman is automatically suspended for another entire season. Apparently when you're the NFL Commissioner, you can just wake up in the morning and make decisions that affect the rest of someone's career on a whim. The only possible reason Bengals.com could come up with at this time was an alleged assault in the spring involving Thurman, but since no police were called and no charges were filed, Goodell would simply be looking for any excuse at all to punish Thurman if that was his reason. There may be a good reason for denying Thurman's request, but not releasing that reason at the same time the denial was announced is simply lazy and irresponsible, and Goodell deserves all the criticism he gets because of it, even if he announces a legitimate reason at a later date.

The NFL's morale of the story: someone suffering from substance abuse problems deserves to be repeatedly punished for it for the rest of his life (or at least suspended two entire seasons), while a thug who--along with six or seven of his cronies--decides to mug a fellow NFL employee outside of a casino doesn't get suspended for a single game.