The NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has received heat over this code of conduct policy for NFL players and associates. The way he has handled the Ray Rice domestic violence incident is another example of his abuse of power as NFL Commissioner. There is no doubt that Ray Rice should be suspended, but Goodell should not be the person determining the length of the suspension.
The length of a player suspension should not be determined by the NFL based on what happened. This would eliminate all controversy on how long Ray Rice got suspended vs Josh Gordon who got suspended 10 games for marijuana. Suspensions for code of conduct should be due to the number of occurances for an individual and not be based on what happened. First occurance offenders should be suspended 2 games, 2nd time offenders should be 5 games, 3rd time offenders 10 games and 4th time offenders expelled from the league.
With this kind of suspension policy in effect for violations of code of conduct, we won't hear about Commissioner Goodell being too strict or leinient for different offenses. Therefore if this domestic violence event was Ray Rice's first offense it would have drawn a 2 game suspension for him and that's it. Obviously the video of Rice hitting his fiance caused a backlash against the NFL for the short initial suspension of Rice and it was Goodell's chance to make amends for not being harder on Rice on the initial punishment.
Criminal punishment is determined by the court of laws and it is not a perfect system, but it has rules in place for many reasons. Unfortunately the criminal prosecution performed by the government drops the ball many times by trying a tougher offense to prove rather than taking the obvious offense that may have a lesser punshment. By no means should the NFL or anyone else have the right to punish an individual further based on criminal activity activity in addition to what the court of law did or did not do.
The NFL may be designated as the No Fun League, but it is and will always be about football. Drama exists everywhere, but we should not be dramatizing this game further than what the players have done on their own off the field.
Furthermore, if Aaron Hernandez is found not guilty of murder, it is not the job of the NFL to punish him with a lifetime ban. I can't believe that he will be found not guilty, but if the prosecution tries him for a murder that leaves a shadow of doubt, he will be released and found not guilty. I find that hard to believe that will happen for all three murders that even the worst prosecution would not get the connected to chance a loss. But if in that blue moon Hernandez is found not guilty of anything, and that is his first offense of the NFL code of conduct policy, he should be suspended only 2 games for the violation.
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