Roger Goodell finally made a decision whether or not to punish Adam “Pacman” Jones and Chris Henry. The verdict: Goodell came down, and he came down hard. According to ESPN, Jones was suspended for the entire 2007 season and Henry will be banned for eight games next year.
In a letter to each player, Goodell wrote: “Your conduct has brought embarrassment and ridicule upon yourself, your club, and the NFL, and has damaged the reputation of players throughout the league. You have put in jeopardy an otherwise promising NFL career, and have risked both your own safety and the safety of others through your off-field actions. In each of these respects, you have engaged in conduct detrimental to the NFL and failed to live up to the standards expected of NFL players. Taken as a whole, this conduct warrants significant sanction.”
Good for Goodell, because this had to be done. Jones has been involved or arrested in at least a baker’s dozen of incidents since he was drafted in ’05. His latest involvment – a shooting at a strip club in Las Vegas – didn’t get him charged with anything, but did leave a man paralyzed from the waist down. Henry has also had his fair share of off the field issues, apparently not learning from any of them considering he was arrested four times in a 14-month span. Both players would have to be reinstated next year before being allowed back into the league. Pacman – if convicted in any of his pending legal charges – could be in jail by that time and should be if he’s found guilty of any wrong doing regarding the multiple shootings in Vegas.
These players need to take the suspended time to learn from this, make a lifestyle change. The money lost in these suspensions is hefty, but obviously taking cash away from these players has been the equivalent to a slap on the wrist. Now is the time for them to man up, get some help and start taking accountability for their actions. Hopefully Goodell got his message across to future players as well, because the NFL is too good of a league to deal with this crap on a consistent basis.
