If you don't have a big name they let teams waive you...

Found this little gem on Yahoo sports. Apparently, there was some shenanigans in the criminal trial. (an actual trial!)

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/newsbreak- ... GFDjVDubYF

49'ers signed him after acquittal, now there's a civil case pending. Wonder what Roger is going to do about this one?

Is this even National news on the sports networks? I'm in Japan so I don't get much.


EDIT: forgot link

 

Teams can waive whoever they want, it's not up to the NFL to tell teams who they can and can't waive. If the Steelers had wanted to waive Ben, they could have. Not sure I understand your point.

The criminal trial sounds like it was a mess though. Athletes quite often get preferential treatment in the courts.

 

Didn't actually go down on the screen correctly. Point is there wasn't a suspension even though he was in a criminal trial. They were satisfied with a waiver and no teams wanting to pick him up. So, they saved some time and effort and let it stay at that. Now, he's actually signed and there is the civil trial coming. This is now in the area that he set precedence with Ben. Is the requirement now to suspend him do to the accusations and his bringing discredit to the League?

 

I missed the point of the topic as well. Thought it was just me.

 

You need to do your research as to why Ben was suspended. The two sexual assault allegations were a small part of the bigger picture with Ben. The guy was damn near out of control for a couple years. He was treating everyone like ****, from waitresses to his own teammates. He was riding around on his motorcycle without a helmet (after his accident) and giving the finger to the local media. The sexual assault allegations are not the only reason he was suspended, far from it.

There's a reason the Rooney's threatened to trade him. It wasn't just Goodell that had a problem with Ben. You can't compare the two cases, as they're not that similar at all.

 

My bad wrong sub-forum. I just wanted to see what being a basic no-name would effect the outcome of Goodell's decisions.

TTF hit it on the head and was my thought when I saw this. I would like to see consistency. It's the same when applying rules to tackling.

 

There is a difference, though, between no-names and big names. No-names don't have the same impact on the media, and don't exercise the same influence. that's not to say that therefore the rules should be different. It's more that often the trouble the big names get into are in part due to them being big names, thus drawing more fire.

 

I guess that was my real question, whether it was getting the media coverage in the States? I don't get the 24/7 coverage over here.

 

I'm not going to discuss whether the suspension was warranted. I don't even want to go down that road, but there's no denying the difference between Fletcher Cox facing one sexual assault allegation and everything that was going on with Ben. It's apples to oranges. It wasn't just the two sexual assaults that caused Ben to get suspended, it was everything. Whether or not all that stuff came out before or after is irrelevant as the league and the Pittsburgh Steelers would have known about all that stuff before the public. It wasn't like it was a big secret Ben was known for treating the public like crap. So no, I don't think the two sexual assault allegations were the only reason Ben was suspended.

 

Jesus Shaner, Goodell could suspend half the league for those reasons. Seriously, being rude to waitstaff??? Say that out loud and let that sink in for a minute, lol, that's absurd. Riding a motorcycle without a helmet? Rooneys would be the ones to talk to him about that. I never saw the finger incident, i've only heard about it through you, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and still say so what, not suspension worthy, fine possibly,not suspension. Ben was suspended for his behavior that night, and prior accusation, period.[/quote:22gtyw89]

I said the entire picture, which obviously includes 2 sexual assault allegations. He wasn't suspended because he was rude to wait staff, he was suspended because he had 2 sexual assault allegations against him, was known for being rude to the public, had issues in the locker room, etc, etc, etc. Anyway, I'm sure we agree it was the best thing that has happened to him. If not for that suspension, who knows what his life/career would be like right now.

 

Behavior to wait staff, media, his own mother, teammates, Mr. Goodell himself, and Santa Claus played no role in his suspension. Zero. He was also not suspended for the two sexual assault allegations. He was suspended for the negative attention brought to the league by two sexual assault allegations. That's it. And yes, smaller names can be able to get away with more, because they bring less attention with them. Ben wasn't just a note on the ESPN crawl like Corbin Bryant would be if he was in the same situation, Ben was a major story on the actual news. And it saturated NFL coverage. I remember when it came our team's turn for 2010 draft analysis on NFL network, they somehow managed to fill the whole 3 minutes without mentioning a single name of a player we picked. The entire thing was about Ben, and this was some time after it happened.

Shaner, all that other stuff is plenty valid for reasons not to like him. I don't like him any more than you do. But it seems like your point that his other bad behavior -- which, while perhaps inexcusable, is really nothing more than bad behavior as long as it's legal, and giving the finger is legal -- is completely made up. Where are you getting that reports of his behavior played a role in his suspension? Was that ever officially disclosed? Like Tomlin_Era said, half the league is d-bags. Those guys don't get suspended at all for that. So if Ben was suspended for 6 games for the sex accusations plus the bad behavior, but bad behavior doesn't buy you a suspension on its own, does that mean that Ben's other bad behavior bought him somewhere between 1% and 16% of a suspended game? So then without it he would have been suspended for what, 5 games? 5 and a quarter?

I think it comes down to if you believe he was suspended because of what he did with those girls, or because of the attention brought about because of what he did with those girls. I think it's the latter (and I thought that was commonly accepted), because not even Goodell is allowed to suspend people for something he's guessing they might have done. And it's really the only explanation, because in the eyes of the law Ben is actually innocent. I'm not saying he is, but legally he's innocent until proven guilty, and he's about 50 steps short of being proven guilty since charges weren't even brought. Goodell can't say, "You did it, so you're suspended." He can only say that he brought negative attention to the league, which is true. Still out of whack to give him 6 games while people found guilty of crimes get fewer or none, but it's true nonetheless.

If you concede that it's because of the attention that caused the suspension, not because Ben actually did anything (because Mr. Goodell doesn't know that he did and never claimed to know and sure as hell can't prove it and never tried to prove it), then it becomes crystal clear that the attention from the sex assault allegations are the only reason for the suspension. Wanna know why? Because not even I heard about all these reports of him being a dick around town. I may not have my ear to the ground as close as you, but I still have always monitored this/the old message board pretty constantly, I watch NFL Network every day and ESPN a couple times a week, I check in with Steelers.com and NFL.com often, and so I consider myself one of the more informed fans out there, and I hadn't heard anything negative about Ben's private life outside of the sex allegations until I started clicking on threads on this/the old message board specifically about Ben's bad behavior. That stuff is not a story, and it didn't bring bad attention to the league because no one knew about it! Or cared! The only people that knew were the people following Ben's private life closely and intentionally. And that's a very small number of people.