Benchwarmers: Ben Roethlisberger, Roger Goodell, and the NFL
The big news in the NFL world this week is of course Ben Roethlisberger’s suspension for six games, which can be reduced to four if he complies with the rehabilitation program the NFL will lay out. If you haven’t been keeping up with this story, Dave Zirin does a good job going over the case, and the incredible sketchiness of the DA’s decision not to indict Ben. Zirin also implores NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to punish Roethlisberger with a similar punishment to what Michael Vick received: “[He] should have to donate a portion of his salary to rape crisis and battered women’s shelters. He should have to speak to young kids about the fact that ‘No means no.’ He should, in other words, have to do everything that Michael Vick has had to do to make amends.” In this writer’s opinion, Goodell’s punishment, and in particular his letter to Roethlisberger, fall far short of meting the justice Roethlisberger deserves.
Many have argued that the punishment was fair, given the lack of indictment, and given that Roethlisberger is the first player to have been suspended by Goodell without even being arrested; maybe they are right. But Roethlisberger’s constitutional rights don’t apply to his private employment, and it’s acceptable and in their best interests for the NFL to hold their players to a higher standard than the rest of the population, as they are so often in the public eye and any transgressions they make will reflect poorly on the entire league. Also, the NFL conducts its own investigation into any matter of player conduct, and I think it’s fair to assume they have access to the best private investigators in the country. Given that they decided to suspend him at all, and that the Rooneys and the rest of the Steelers management didn’t defend him, can we say they think he is guilty of at least some of the things he is alleged to have done? So then, why not a longer suspension? Assaulting women isn’t comparable to carrying an unlicensed handgun, nor dogfighting (though the latter is of course deplorable), so it should carry a harsher punishment if the league believes, or found evidence, that he did what is alleged.
Even if you set aside the length of the suspension, the part of Goodell’s response that bothers me even more is the letter that he wrote to Roethlisberger, explaining the suspension and urging him to essentially straighten up and fly right. The entire letter is vague (you can read excerpts here), which I suspect is purposeful. He doesn’t mention the allegations of assault, but mentions specifically that Roethlisberger made a big boo-boo when he purchased alcohol for underage girls. Goodell writes: “There is no question that the excessive consumption of alcohol that evening put the students and yourself at risk.”
I realize that every part of the commissioner’s response is carefully crafted between him and his lawyers to make sure he can’t get in any trouble and that the best PR is put out for the league, but the focus on alcohol, and in particular the last quoted sentence infuriates me. It wasn’t the alcohol that blocked off the back of the bar for Roethlisberger and ten girls, as detailed in the police report. It wasn’t the alcohol that blocked off the door to the bathroom so that the victim’s friends couldn’t come to her aid. It wasn’t alcohol that caused the bathroom where the incident allegedly took place not to be sealed post-incident, or that erased the film on the security tapes in the bar. And it wasn’t the alcohol that caused the victim to not want to go through the ordeal that would be a high-profile trial.
Most importantly, Roethlisberger wasn’t put at risk by alcohol; he put others at risk through his seemingly premeditated actions. The language of Goodell’s letter absolves him of blame, and even if the NFL’s lawyers wouldn’t allow him to write anything about the specifics of the incident for fear of libel, it would have been better to have not mentioned the underage alcohol consumption specifically and allow fans to draw their own conclusions about why the suspension was being handed out. Blaming it on a drunken mistake is an insult to thinking NFL fans everywhere.
Fortunately, it seems public opinion, and even the opinion of his peers, is not on Roethlisberger’s side. If he continues to be maligned, it is about as much justice as one can hope for.
Photo courtesy of @jesspgh via her blog, http://consumerconsumed.tumblr.com.
