If you're a Steelers fan... ouch!

Just saw that Goodell suspended Big Ben for six games. Not good for the Steelers. They've got Atlanta, @Tenn, Baltimore, and @Miami in the first seven weeks (they're bye-week is Week 5).

Apparently the Steelers are actually shopping Ben around for a top 10 pick.

How the mighty have fallen... Two-time Super Bowl champ, and the face of the Steelers. Now being shopped around the league. :?

The chance for Roethlisberger to reduce the suspension to only four games with good behaviour might just be academic now as I think he'll be traded for a rinse and repeat of sorts for him if he knows better.

I think most expected four games in the end anyway, but not quite with this approach. We can thank the court of public opinion for his conviction on these matters instead of the judicial system too.

Now both he and Holmes are on the final straw for personal conduct, though Holmes has a criminal conviction also on his record and tweeted recently about what appeared by all rational views his continued drug use. A season-long ban would be next in either case.

Over and beyond the merit of the justice or not, it looks to me like Goodell used the occasions to send a strong message to help clean up the shield despite the number of incidents being down in the last year and since he became commissioner.

See this article for the alarming list of trouble in the NFL at the bottom despite the positive spin attempted in the article:

[url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/apr/17/impact-player-nfl-commissioner-goodell/]http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010 ... r-goodell/[/url]

This guy is pure scum.
I am shocked the Steelers do not release him outright.

Eh... I'd rather get something for him than just give him away.

I'm not a much of a fan of Big Ben and it's his fault for being in these situations but you gotta remember he has never been found guilty of anything. I do still like the way Roger Godell has made it his mandate to make guys realize playing pro football is a privalidge not a right

It is noteworthy that most Steeler fans agree in this regard, though for sure the same could not be said in too many NFL towns had their quarterback been involved in such events in my opinion. The line I hear from too many folks defending him and other athletes, also (i.e. Tiger Woods just one of many examples) not just in alleged rape cases is “well he has not been convicted of a crime” as if that vindicates the alleged behaviour. :roll:

How I wish more people saw it as you stated and the way Goodell saw it Snoopy. Some of those especially who are parents understand what I mean whenever their kid says in defence, “But I didn’t do anything wrong!” when they end up in trouble just for hanging around the wrong crowd or wrong friend. “Well why were you even there?” is a great question not asked often enough in such situations with this era of “sympathy and understanding” and any other given [expletive] excuse to justify poor choices. :x

And of course these are grown professionals we are supposed to be talking about in the NFL, but hey when one is young and rich I won’t be too critical because by default you’ll attract a lot of trouble especially when drugs and/or booze are flowing maybe too much. :roll:

This sort of stuff by the rich and famous has been going on for years and was covered up well before this era of information everywhere. Why else would David Letterman have 'fessed up wisely in 2008? Too many still think these days that they won’t get caught like the days before cameraphones and YouTube. And this sort of stuff still is covered up in many a college town mind you too as was the case with Santonio Holmes at Ohio State as just one example.

However in light of this basic fact it’s not as if every NFL rookie (and those in every other professional league) does not undergo mandatory and prudent orientation and counseling about these matters before even playing from the best professionals available well in advance. Furthermore they have access to the best and usually free support resources within every team organisation available to which most of us would not have financial access. You can lead a horse to water but … :?

Someone needs to bash Ben's head and tell him he has the world at his feet, dont f....k it up buddy!

Yeah... I still can't wrap my head around a 28-year-old going bar-hopping in college towns... That definitely deserves a C'MON, MAN! :lol:

Good luck trying to explain most human behaviour with logic on that count, but I hear you Chief.

Also a wealthy businessman once told me to never forget that “desperate people do desperate things,” and wow have I seen more of that than ever since he told me that in 2002 including during boom times mostly when I was in Las Vegas since I left in this Great Recession.

Also consider the eternal maxim that power corrupts and that even the feeling of absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Certainly I still like you can’t wrap my personal head around the matter if I were in such a position, but all the same it does not matter because this sort of deal goes on regularly far more than reported with professional athletes.

Charles Barkley, definitely not a role model by his own admission and definitely not one at the core as we found out a few years ago and recently yet again, caught a lot of heat back in the 1990s for talking openly about the party life of professional athletes. Our prudish, incestuous, and hypocritical largely New York faux national media, before they could be as exposed for the phonies they were and still are shortly after YouTube because popular about 2005, cried another round of phoney outrage, but even no one back then would have thought anything such as Tiger Woods’ off the course porn partying would arise including with the encouragement of Barkley and Jordan we learned! :lol:

We can expect far more of the same, and expect http://www.tmzsports.com to become the DOMINANT reporting medium on athlete’s true lives just as ESPN and their likes feared rightfully though unadmittedly at the end of last year due to their increasing irrelevance.

And for the better at last I say because I am hardly alone in saying I can’t stand phonies whether athletes or not and fawning, circle-jerking largely New York media who pander to them under the guise of “reporting.”

Watch each sports commissioner in turn adopt stricter personal conduct policies akin to the NFL, as the cost of a tarnished brand ultimately forces their hands whatever one has to say or not about any ethics or morality.

The letter written by Ben Roethlisberger's attorney, David Cornwell, to Roger Goodell as reprinted in Peter King's excellent Monday Morning QB weekly column is the best and most accurate summary of the matter I have ever seen reported, and note that this letter was written BEFORE the announced suspension:

[url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/05/02/offseason/1.html]http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/w ... son/1.html[/url]

It would be hard for any person to top Cornwell's fair assessment despite his fiduciary duty to Roethlisberger first and foremost via the attorney-client privilege.

Indeed we can see that Goodell handled the matter quite well when you consider Cornwell's feedback.

If you have some quiet time and want to be familiar with more of the facts behind the matter of Roethlisberger as opposed to just the spentatainment media (i.e. ESPN!) and tabloid reporting, it's worth a read but not if you are in a hurry or impatient.

Agreeing or disagreeing with King's views matters little given his insights with all his inside sources to the NFL, perhaps if you are like me also a hardcore football fan who goes beyond the common and sometimes mindless homer status.

I try to catch King's MMQB column weekly, as it contains so much that is not reported elsewhere on the NFL.

Terry Bradshaw did everything but that to try and help, but as Bradshaw had commented publicly, Roethlisberger (R) rebuffed him and they don’t like each other.

Despite Bradshaw’s hyper demeanor, consider that literally Bradshaw had walked in his life in R’s shoes plus endured far greater animosity by the Pittsburgh fans and Coach Chuck Noll when he played.

I doubt highly that Bradshaw was the only one to whom R did not listen after his off-season motorcycle accident years ago, and no wonder R is getting some recommended and overdue counselling as recommended to Goodell also by his R’s attorney.