This morning Roger Goodell, NFL Commish, handed down the sentence to Cleveland Browns WR Donte Stallworth. Stallworth will be suspended for the entire 2009 season without pay. This suspension coming after his guilty plea in June for DUI manslaughter. Stallworth will not be able to participate in any team functions until his reinstatement sometime after the Super Bowl. In a letter to Stallworth from Goodell he claimed that Stallworth had left a “stain” on the reputation of the NFL.
“Your conduct endangered yourself and others, leading to the death of an innocent man,” Goodell wrote. “The NFL and NFL players must live with the stain that you have placed on their reputations.”
I think Roger Goodell did a great job on this one. This was a very touchy area with Michael Vick just coming off a two year absence. He needed to send a message and he needed to be stern. He couldn’t have it look like he went lighter on a man who killed a person rather than a man that killed dogs. So the luck continues for the Cleveland Browns and we have another chapter in the “Only in Cleveland” novel. I guess we can kiss a Cleveland Browns World Championship goodbye now. Thanks a lot, Donte.
Source: SI.com
