he very well could, especially if it's a year later. imo, I think the Samuel contract was reasonable.
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The Random Thought Thread
- Thread starter The Greek
- Start date
JO_75
Hall of Famer
He deserved the whole season... can't Goodell extend his suspension if he wanted to? Come on Goodell, do the right thing and suspend him the full season.
JAAM
Hall of Famer
Only if he was smoking weed during the massage or bet on a happy ending
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
If he wants to, sure. Would probably make him look much worse though, considering the whole idea of an independent judge overseeing the punishment phase like this is exactly what the public wanted. So it seems ironic that now they want Roger to just arbitrarily hand down the punishment himself.
Plus the NFL would immediately get sued in Federal court if he does, so depends on whether they want to go that route and spend millions defending themselves or not.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
And perhaps comically, the ruling came from a woman...
cobrajet
Hall of Famer
100% agree
It seems like most people expect the NFL to appeal the decision. It would just look bad for them to do it after going through an independent investigation and hiring Robinson anyway. It's worth noting, however, that Robinson's decision was not focused on Watson's conduct (she didn't dispute the league's factual findings) and more focused on how a full year suspension isn't provided for in any NFL policies and suspension history (Violent sexual assaults are still only minimum 6 game suspensions - the longest ever was 10 games, which got reduced to 4). If the NFL wants to be serious about these issues going forward, they could try to change the policy (if the NFLPA is willing to negotiate) and probably make it more fair.
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
I posted this in response to somebody on Twitter... doesn't the public look like just a big bag of hypocritical douches if they spent all these years complaining about how the NFL has no independent punishment review process, and how Goodell shouldn't be allowed to handle this stuff on his own? And now that they actually have one, people are just deciding now they want Roger to step in, all because the outcome wasn't what the public wanted?
Feels like the public is just doing what they always do... arbitrarily assigning a "conjured out of thin air" punishment in an attempt to act as the morality police, rather than "staying in their lane" or actually using the one power they have, which is the power of action?
I'm not sure I want the NFL deviating from the policy it has for this, just because the general public arbitrarily decides it wants to be mad for a few days. The general public is no more or less qualified to make decisions or rulings on these cases than this judge is or even than Goodell is.
I'd agree with that. Professional athletes inherently have a large, vocal portion of the public that automatically hates them and thinks they're irredeemably evil or automatically thinks they do no wrong. Combine that with the NFL's broad and vague professional conduct policy and you have the perfect environment for these types of disputes to be resolved in a way that is always going to be unsatisfying to most of the public.
Ultimately, the NFL and Robinson (and the NFLPA behind closed doors probably) had the same reaction of "this is horrible, there needs to be a precedent-setting punishment." It just turned into a dispute over how long it should be and having an independent person review and decide is really the best (and probably only) way to handle it.
Tank
Hall of Famer
I think the issue is that the judge used a league precedent for the suspension which really doesn’t look like an independent decision. It seems like the court of public opinion will force Goodell’s hand and they will appeal.
BoredMarine13
Ravens Ring of Honor
I’ll never forget all the “ no means no” signs for big ben
Nurps
MVP
I have a t shirt of ben with his broken nose care of ngata. Says "nose means nose"
SepticeyePoe
Hall of Famer
Tank
Hall of Famer
One of my fondest memories of The Tongan Beast.
Nurps
MVP
Attachments
rmcjacket23
Ravens Ring of Honor
I mean... that's how any independent review is going to handle it. Do you really want an independent review to be handing out completely arbitrary and subjective punishments based on their personal feelings of the situation, or even worse, based on how the public will react for a few days and then stop caring?
Think of it this way... what ruling can the judge give that won't be appealed by either the NFLPA or the NFL? Do fans want an independent review process that leads to immediate appeals and dragged out lawsuits? Especially for off-field issues that are supposed to be adjudicated by a criminal justice system funded by taxpayers? Is that the best use of the NFL's time? I certainly don't think so.
Another thing to consider... lets go down the rabbit hole of appeals, lawsuits, etc. The NFL bears significant costs related to going to court, finding NFLPA and player lawsuits, etc. You think the Owners are just going to eat those costs? LOL, nope. Ticket prices = increase. So are fans willing to pay more to go to games just so Watson gets suspended for a few more games?
I don't think Goodell appeals. I think this is what the public wanted, and he should let the public have what they wanted. The public is just a bunch of short-sighted hypocrites who will get over it fast. It won't even be a topic a month from now, and nobody will care one bit once the season starts.
drjohnnyfever
Pro Bowler
This.
There was a pretty good contingent of people arguing for a long time that the courts should do the adjudicating of off the field problems with players, but the very large and loud crowd of demagogues demanded the NFL take action before any day in court. When they did, they were criticized... and when the didn't they were too... and judged by the penalties they handed out... and for who they handed them out to. They wanted out after they CHOSE to get in for political purposes. If they don't stay out now, after this kind of dispute resolution being a major feature of the NFLPA agreement, they are right back in again. The agreement to have an impartial arbitrator handle this stuff was a key of the NFLPA agreement with their new bargaining contract.
The owners don't want the responsibility of this crap on their shoulders again, but they also can't stand the negative shade being thrown on them. hahaha It's laughable. It also leads credence that it was the NFL who leaked the initial story back in May or June that 8 games was the likely decision, because they were lobbying thru the media for a stiffer penalty.
It's all a mess, but what else would anyone expect when we live in a time where anything that occurs in the world is either the best or the worst thing to happen depending on what commentary you listen to. lol
The best thing that could happen is every team plays their best game of the season against the Brownies and/or Greg Williams gets back into the NFL for awhile and institues his bounty system again.