Don't Mess With Roger

New NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is making his presence felt in a big way. The league announced today its disciplinary actions against Titans' CB Adam "Pacman" Jones and Bengals WR Chris "I get arrested a lot" Henry. And it looks like neither are going to be collecting paychecks for quite some time.

No slap-on-the-wrist. Pacman is gone for the entire season, Henry for 8 games. (I guess appeals could reduce the length, but not by much.) That's a major punishment, and yet most commentators have reacted favorably. After all, both players are definitely not Boy Scouts, and their behavior has been embarassing for the league. Pacman has been interviewed 10 times by police recently and was involved in a fight and shooting in Vegas; Henry has been arrested 4 times in the past 14 months.

Interestingly enough though, I was watching Comcast's excellent new sports talk show Washington Post Live, and one of the commentators--I forget who--brought up an excellent point. How many games did Ray Lewis have to miss when he faced murder charges and wound up copping a plea? Answer: none.

So while Pacman and Henry have not actually been convicted of any crimes, it looks like Goodell is making examples out of those two. He's the new guy in charge, and I guess I support him. In general, NFL players enjoy a much better reputation than NBA players. Goodell clearly wants to make sure his players don't get stuck with the "thug" label attached to a number of basketball players.