A Tale Of Two Commissioners

Opportunity was knocking Monday, but the Commish would not let him in.

Hearing the news that neither Andre Johnson nor Cortland Finnegan would be suspended for their on-field altercation, it’s clear that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell dropped the ball on the ruling.  It should have been harsher.  Much harsher.

Johnson and Finnegan dropped sticks, threw off the gloves, and mixed it up in the fourth quarter of the thrilling yawn-inspiring Texans-Titans game on Sunday.  In a game between the NFL’s two most disappointing sweetheart teams over the past three years, an even more disappointing display of sportsmanship stole the show.  The reaction from Johnson was surprising based upon his even-keeled personality, though he was instigated by a Grade A rat in Finnegan.  There were shirts ripped, helmets comically ripped off and thrown (see: Finnegan), and a few ugly punches landed.  Finnegan and his dreadful haircut were on the receiving end of most of the heavy ones.

Goodell took over as commissioner and quickly built a reputation through a no-nonsense policy and heavy disciplinary actions doled out.   For the players, off field lapses in judgment now lead to suspensions, sometimes multiple games for repeat offenders like Pacman Jones and Ben Roethlisberger.  Helmet-to-helmet hits draw fines larger than the average joe’s salary.  But this?  This pummeling? These grown men acting like babies? A measly $25,000 each.  How will the Commish explain this ruling?  A fight at a strip club in the middle of the night draws a multiple game ban, but an obscene disregard for sportsmanship on national television is just a few thousand dollars.

He got it wrong.

Johnson, though a generally decent NFL citizen and clearly remorseful about his actions, should be suspended for at least two games.  I’m not just saying that because the Eagles’ secondary has decided to work from home and has to cover him on Thursday night.  Finnegan should have received somewhere between $75,000 fine and a one game suspension.  Though he was the victim of what would have been a misdemeanor assault on the street, Finnegan got his shots in.  If the video is slowed down, one can clearly see that he threw a punch first, before he ripped Johnson’s helmet off an threw it.

Goodell wants to clean up the league’s image, and has shown positive steps towards getting it through the players’ heads that they represent a company and should act accordingly.  But, what better opportunity to do so than this skirmish?  It happened on the field, in front of the fans!  Not in a bar bathroom, or a dark club VIP room, or on a police report.  It happened directly in front of the consumers, and Goodell missed a chance to improve the product.






Oh, and Reid f****d up.
That field goal was pointless.
End of story.