Suspend Ben Roethlisberger Under the Team Policy

It's been a Big Ben kind of day. Lots of opinions floating out there about what kind of suspension is going to fall, and why. The biggest buzz came not from the Rooney press conference , but from the victim statements released by the Milledgeville, GA district attorney. Here's a few of her statements on record with the police immediately following the incident:

"I told him it wasn’t OK, no, we don’t need to do this and I proceeded to get up and try to leave. I went to the first door I saw, which happened to be a bathroom."

"I still said no, this is not OK, and he then had sex with me. He said it was OK. He then left without saying anything."

A suspension is a foregone conclusion. It's going to happen. The question is for how long. Well, that depends on a few things. This afternoon Art Rooney shared that the disciplinary action will be coordinated with the league. All fine and dandy, but that merges two independent policies. The team enforced policy of "conduct detrimental to the team" which max's out at a four game suspension, and the League's Personal Conduct Policy which grants liberty for a much longer suspension. Which policy takes the lead in this dance?

The question I ask is, which disciplinary track is best for the team, the Steeler fan base, and ultimately for Roethlisberger? An eight game suspension would hurt him, no doubt. It would also hurt the Steelers and their fans, and quite frankly, the entire division and beyond. Would a three or four game suspension deliver the same message without incurring the same collateral damage? I think so.

This is not going to be a situation that gets filed away once the suspension is over. The team is going to have to continue to work with Roethlisberger, providing structure and mentoring. Youth is NOT an excuse for what he has allegedly done, but at 28 years of age (having won his first Super Bowl at 23) he seems to have missed some big life lessons along the way.

Keeping him in a highly supervised and intense program after a moderate suspension will be far more a productive path for all involved. Roethlisberger should also be required to participate in a variety of victims rights groups. Perhaps in a sober environment, listening to sexual assault victims talk about their experiences and healing process might shed some light on the severity of his recent choices.

I'm not soft on this. I'm not proposing to absolve him. I just learned a few things while watching the Eagles organization rally around a guy like Michael Vick. I see that positive CAN come out of utter ugliness. I rather see Ben Roethlisberger be a success story rather than a Ryan Leaf story. So sue me.