Big Ben's Night Out

Far from it, obviously.

I think I'll just have to agree to disagree with OOP. He's too close to this - and relishes the battle way too much, it seems - to make a completely rational judgment.

 

Odd. I thought YGBFKM had issues with condescencing posts. I can't imagine how he let this one slide by.

I am far from the only one relishing the battle here. What I see from you is that you are allowing your disgust regarding Roethlisberger's behavior to influence your judgements of anybody who questions the NFL or the Steelers.

As I mentioned previously, I was a Steelers fan long before Roethlisberger became a member of that team and I will continue to be a fan long after he is gone. As a "fandork," I am far more inclined to side with the team over the player. Yet somehow it is fanboyishness when I laugh at the idea of the Steelers holding some moral high ground?

Perhaps you should go for a little more Spock and a little less Professor X next time around because your telepathy sucks, but some logic might help you out.

 

Allow me to interupt here ... Steelers plan to keep Roethlisberger.


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10112/1052593-66.stm

 

Issues, with a capital I.

 

Sounds like they floated the idea of trading Roethlisberger to see if somebody would pay full price or overpay, then dropped it once they realized that wasn't going to happen.

 

Or sounds like they wanted to send a message to Ben R. that he's not indispensable, and cleverly used the media to get the point across.

As to the larger issue you seem to want people to opine on: As a citizen, yes, it's kind of frightening that your livelihood can be taken away from you because of bad moral decisions. But as someone who works for a private company that demands and requires its employees live by a certain standard ... well, yeah, like anyone who plays in the NFL, we agree to abide by those standards and suffer the consequences if we don't.
As a journalist, I do think it'll be fascinating to watch Goodell draw the line on moral issues. He didn't suspend Ben for whatever he did or didn't do in that bathroom; he suspended him for a litany of reasons (and the public likely doesn't know all) that brought "the brand" bad publicity. As my colleague Clay Travis (who's also a lawyer) wrote, it'll be interesting to see where Goodell splits the baby:
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2010/04/21/roger-goodell-nfls-solomon-attempts-to-split-the-baby/

 

That was one of my points. Not just that he suspended Roethlisberger, but that we don't know where the line is. I don't think Goodell even knows where it is. He is making this up as he goes, which is interesting to say the least.

Edit: I just read through the rest of it. Excellent points. Guy must be a Steelers fan, though, since he dares to question Emperor Goodell.

 

To me there are two "gets" in this saga: the alleged victim in the Georgia bathroom, who made it clear from the moment she exited the bar with her friends she didn't want to press charges; and Goodell, because he is the judge and jury on suspensions/fines and appeals, and his history (what drives him, what offends him, what he believes in, what he despises, the sort of corporation he wants to create, the sort of world he hopes to live in, how he wants to be remembered and defined) is incredibly pertinent.

 

Weird . . . that link says Fanhouse, but I could have sworn I was reading Bleacher Report.

"George Orwell's 1984?

Welcome to the NFL's 2010."

Outing alert: Clay Travis is 93Devil. At least, his metaphors are just as bad.

 

Umm, what does that have to do with what I've posted recently? I have no problem with the NFL suspending him for six games or a full season.

That said, while I don't agree with OOP on this I am able to see where he's coming from. And, hopefully, he'd be making the same argument if it was Romo or Ray Lewis or any player not on the Steelers' roster.

 

Inky, there is no way he'd be rambling on and on and trying to get the last word for 13 frikkin' pages if this involved any player on any other team. No way.

 

Perhaps. Perhaps not. I choose to believe he's not totally letting his fanboi looserness dictate his thinking on this. But I could be wrong.