ESPN Sources: Roethlisberger Suspended for up to 6 Games in Connection With Sexual Assault Complaint

The players union agreed to allow the commissioner to suspend players under an extremely loose definition of moral conduct. Including conduct that had not be found illegal in a court of law. Given that how can the Steelers or Roethlisberger complain? Now do these type of suspensions actually help the sport as a business? There is frankly zero evidence even illegal activity by the players including horrifically illegal activities actually deflects from the fans interest. As far as I can tell the big winner of these suspension campaigns in sports have been the 24/7 TV and radio sports channels. Where fans call in pretend to care and then watch and buy the product anyways.

The original conduct policy referred to an arrest or conviction. Certainly the facts of this case point to poor conduct, even without enough evidence to prosecute. But, without that bright line, does that mean every time a crazy person makes an accusation, no matter how implausible, the commissioner will be compelled to act? There are always those that defend every accusation, no matter how unreliable. I'd rather not have the Commissioner making his own determinations of "probable cause". Obviously he will be considering the PR aspect first and foremost. I'd prefer if they stuck with crimes at are actually charged.

It's up at The Smoking Gun.

BTW, only someone who hadn't read the paperwork would call the woman in question "crazy", or other derogatory terms.

Obviously not, but thanks for the typical knee jerk reaction. If you had read it, you would have seen that I said that the facts of this particular case are pretty clear. I never called this young woman crazy, or made any comment about this case at all, except to say that it was pretty clear he had done wrong. My issue is with moving the standard. Sure it's easy in this particular case, but if you set a precedent that says everyone who is accused must be punished, what happens when it is an unreliable accusation made by a crazy person. If you set the standard with an easy case, it makes the hard cases a lot more problematic.

Those disciplined by the Player Conduct Policy in the NFL have been shown to commit offenses that are injurious to the league. The player's union would get involved over any accusation by a "crazy person". They've been silent on this issue. Considering the fact the player's union president is an attorney, he would have been allll over it if the league had no leg to stand on.

GDI released 500+ pages over the weekend on Big Ben's little misadventure. I submit the only reasons he was not charged are the facts the crime scene was conveniently "scrubbed", the security camera's footage was erased, and the victim finally came forward and requested the case be dropped, most likely due to fear for her own safety. Just reading some of the comments about her by "fans" around the league would be enough to turn the stomach of a thinking person. If you think nothing happened here, I wonder about you. Then again, as a defense lawyer, you get paid to plant doubt.

Roethlisberger is a predator. Luckily, the commissioner has demanded that he submit to behavioral testing as part of his punishment, so he'll get some help.

I should also add that Goodell was pushed into this kicking and screaming by the evidence outlined in those investigative papers. He had no other choice.

You keep trying to drag me into defending Ben Roethlisberger. I'm not. I'd prefer a bright line because once you start punishing people over accusations there will undoubtedly be people who are punished based upon untrue accusations. You obviously feel strongly about this issue, as you should. But if you are honest, you will admit that you start out with a bias that every accusation is true. Again I am not talking about this particular case, but invariably someone is going to be accused of something that is later shown to have no merit, but the people who live their lives in black and white will say well, there was no case brought against Roethlisberger and he was punished, this guy needs to be punished too. I'd like to put the onus on prosecutors, not the commissioner, to determine if a crime has been committed. However, the end of the day, how the NFL commissioner treats his employees isn't the biggest issue any of us will face today.

It is not the NFLs job to police society or even its own employees for things done off the NFL. They however have decided to make such things part of their job. The idea of this was it was going to generate good PR for the league and prevent negative PR for the league. Which may cost it money. I.E. in theory punishing Ben may prevent Ben from getting in trouble with the law at a future date and embarrassing the league further. To date in no way shape or form have these policies worked out that way. See Pac Man Jones for instance. As David Stern has lamented before, NBA players have a lower rate of criminal behavior than the general public for men of their age and demographic. Yet the majority of fans believe just the opposite. The NBA personal conduct policies were suppose to have changed that image, but much to his surprise didn't. Instead it tends to reinforce the public's preconceived view of athletes and can turn small stories into 24/7 talk radio news. Worse fans seem to not really care about any of this stuff. So and so might be an *, but if he's on your team then he's your * so long as he plays well. You hate the other teams *, but defend your teams *. You see this thinking in politics too. It's doubtful Steeler sales would be down no matter how horrible Ben's record off the field was (and it isn't pretty) anymore than the Eagles saw any significant impact on their bottom line from getting Vick. David Ortiz found to have used steriods, Red Sox ticket sales go up. Oh well. The only good benefit of the personal conduct policy is it allows you to dump players that under perform their contract. It has been a get out of contract free card for teams. Which isn't particularly "good" for the players union, but who wants to defend a rapist?

If I am reading this correctly, a week after she'd been assaulted and nearly raped by Roethlisberger, he invited her to his house. For some reason, she went there, and then accepted a drunken invitation to enter his bedroom and "see his new bed". I like to think that if I had a 22-year-old daughter who'd been threatened by a man one week, she would avoid him AND his bedroom for a very long time.

Ben should be prosecuted, and the woman should get some safety training.

Only was alleged by a Scout Explorer that was somehow related to her.

The first accusation that he's accused of is a girl he met in a group while he and his posse were bar-hopping that night. That was the only night he saw that girl and probably raped her.

Goodell had already set the precedent that there does not need to be a conviction or indictment for the league offices to act (in a lot of past incidents, many players have been able to suppress serious charges with hush money, bribes or well-constructed alibis after-the-fact...)

Another thing he looks at are 'sustained patterns of behavior' -- Big Ben would have gotten off lighter if this girl's statement to the police was the only mark on an otherwise squeaky clean record, but the fact that a few others have come forward (claiming a similar MO) has made it look that much worse...Given the precedent, I think the 4 games with good behavior is about right...

as of ten minutes ago.

He's going to drag his feet until the Steelers manage to successfully trade their little problem -- oops, their Pro Bowl quarterback.

Does Goodell realize what kind of message this sends to female NFL fans who are the victims of sexual assault/rape?

:eyes:

Roethlisberger is suspended for six games in the upcoming season.

Must've finally gotten too toasty for Goodell...

:eyes:

you need to be a little better informed. He's brought the hammer down frequently on any player or club official who violates the NFL code of conduct.

So they could have the trifecta:

1. White people take care of each other, don't you know;
2. The NFL is RACIST in how it punishes bad behavior;
3. There is too much money at stake to punish a Pro Bowl quarterback

So there will be some pouting, I'm sure.

Goodell was pushed into a corner by the release of the GBI investigation, or he would not have acted at all.

He's famous for coming down like a ton of bricks on non-starters or "non-marquee" teams.

Stars like Vick and Brandon Marshall and players from (among others) the Cowboys and Bears. Are you saying there are other players that he's gone easy on because of their (or their team's) high profile?

sexual assault gets you a seat on the bench. But hurting dogs gets you jail.

I see where women fit in the hierarchy of this culture. And that would be below NASCAR and the family dog and maybe above the town drunk.

Football today....a bunch of thugs. I don't even drink beer anymore.

Now your eyes are rolling because they're acting decisively.

Are your eyes just perpetually spinning in your head, or what?

It's been noted.

Even the local fans are not happy with him and the Rooney's do not suffer this kind of behavior kindly. I expect they will give him their support outwardly but the wheels to replace him are turning. the Rooney's have had no problem in the past either letting amazing talent leave on their own or replacing them.....see Randel El, Buress, Holmes, etc. If they believe that Ben is going to be a destructive force on the team and in the locker room.......they'll replace him.

If he's not gone by tomorrow it will only be because they couldn't get a decent value for him or no one is interested enough in him to offer more than a minor pick in the draft.

his reputation for being a schmuck around the town doesn't work in Pittsburgh. He has been known to walk out on tabs because he "drew in a crowd", that doesn't play well in an area proud of its blue collar ethic.

with two sexual assault cases against him, even though not proven guilty, he has now officially become a complete turd.

even one of his high-profile teammates, not known for drama, had publicly questioned his decision to sit out?

Legit. Doctors told him to sit out. Hines Ward was the one who questioned his guts but then backed down and apologized.

I don't know if he raped the young woman but he has the I Q of a plant.

would tell the police he kicked her dog. That would get some action against Ben.

or maybe winnepeg. I don't think the Rooneys want the stink around any more, and I am 99.9% sure this won't be the last time Ben gets in trouble.

Late today, both the St. Louis Rams and the Buffalo Bills have publicly said that they are not interested in acquiring Roethlisberger.

But KDKA's Bob Pompeani reports that there are some teams who clearly would be interested in Roethlisberger – all of which have top ten selections in the draft. The Oakland Raiders, the Seattle Seahawks and even the Cleveland Browns are all reportedly interested in the Steelers quarterback.

Further fueling the trade rumors was the Steelers' decision yesterday to bring back Quarterback Byron Leftwich. The team extended Leftwich's contract today.

http://kdka.com/steelers/Ben.Roethlisberger.Steelers.2.1648274.html

Lawrence Phillips, Christian Peter, Steven Jackson...

If the Steelers decide to punt Big Ben, I will become a Steelers fan

I've been a Steelers fan all of my life (I'm 57 years old). I'm so disgusted with Ben. I've never been a fan of his from the beginning. If the Steelers don't trade him immediately, assuming anyone would want this locker room poison on their roster, I will be disappointed in the organization.

He'll only serve a four game suspension. There's no way he'll serve the full six game suspension.

barf. The dude is a sexual pervert and all he gets is a seat on the bench for a few games.

'Higher standard than the law????'

I guess women now know their place in this culture. Somewhere between the cleaning lady and the family dog.

And that's why I don't watch football anymore.

Just looking at his swelled face, he looks like the 'roids are working.

Maybe the Steelers could've traded him to that league and he could've worn as his name.

"All my b*tches" from what he said in that VIP room.

Anyone remember the player who work "He Hates Me"?

Or he could've worn "I'm a Pervert"

And I also hope he is traded or released. One of the things I love about the Steelers organization is their commitment to enforcing appropriate standards of conduct among their players, even at the expense of potentially damaging their on-field outcomes. I want to be proud of the members of the team I support and love (from the city I support and love), not ashamed to be rooting for them come play time because they're assholes off the field.