What does an blood alcohol level of .126, a black Bentley, and a chain of horrible decisions get you? Unfortunately for one family, it cost the life of 59 year old Mario Reyes. Unfortunately it only cost Browns Wide Receiver Donte Stallworth 30 days in prison, and an indefinite suspension by football commissioner Roger Goodell. Stallworth faced up to 15 years in prison, but after settling on a value of restitution estimated at anywhere between two and five million dollars, Stallworth walked away with less time in the slammer than Michael Vick. He will serve two years under house arrest, and eight years of probation after getting out of jail, but is this even close to enough.
What Mike Vick did is wrong, but is it as wrong as a man making a conscious decision to put his life and those driving on local roads in jeopardy? Plaxico Burress shot himself. He only put himself in danger when his mind or lack of usage of it) accidently got the gun to go off. But he could face up to 3 years of prison? Mistakes are mistakes, but when you enter a certain arena that takes the life of an innocent person, you are going beyond breaking the law. Some like me believe it goes beyond a temporary suspension. In a similar situation before the Goodell period, Leonard Little was suspended eight games for involuntary manslaughter, after killing a woman. Will the man who has been known to throw down the law, (how many times has Adam Jones been reinstated?) actually slam the door. Will he slam his foot down on the football player, whose lawyer Christopher Lyons calls a man because Stallworth, “remained at the scene. He cooperated fully.”
If he was a real man, he would of stayed at the hotel for the night. He would of taken a cab. He would of made the right conscious decision in front of him. A day after earning 4.5 million dollar in bonus money, Stallworth could have celebrated responsibly, instead of taking a father away from a 14 year old daughter. That would of been a manly thing to do.
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Fantasy Analysis-
Though morals has nothing to do with winning your league championship, I challenge you to take that into effect as you get your league under way. I don’t think it is out of question for Stallworth to be suspended for the whole season, but it seems it could be shorter than that as well. Meanwhile, talk of Plaxico Burress’ suspension continues to heat up. The NFL made a good move of jumping on the Stallworth suspension right away. Many teams will be interested for the ’09 season, including the Bucs, Bears, Ravens and Jets.
It seems that Brett Favre is on his own terms now. Favre said that he felt okay about his performance in Mississippi, and that the throwing strength is coming along. He said it isn’t quite yet there though, and if he doesn’t get that shoulder strength back, he wasn’t going to play in 2009. Though he will be returning to the NFC North, I still see little to no value in Favre, unless he goes on a streak to start the season.
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FanSided
Zach Thompson
