Goodell's Good Ol' Mess Mars Annual NFL Excitement

It’s rare that I am this excited for football season before preseason games are being played, fantasy drafts are being planned, and full, lazy Sunday’s are being dreamed about.  But for some reason I haven’t fully been able to explain, I am itching for football and training camps aren’t even in full swing yet.

My summers belong to baseball, so this never happens.  But in the last couple weeks, you haven’t been the only one wondering what kind of impact Favre will have in Viking purple (I’m 99.99 percent sure he’s playing); how vaunted the Patriots are going to be with a healthy and motivated Tom Brady; the T.O. tour in Buffalo; Pittsburgh’s title defense; Mark Sanchez in New York; Romo’s needed rebound in Dallas; and everything in between.

It’s one of the best times to be a football fan.  Unfortunately, it also happens to be one of the worst times to be a football fan.

Those of you who crave rainy winter days and a full slate of great games, raise your hand—okay, that’s a lot of hands.  Now those of you who adore month-long trials and year-long suspensions, raise your hand—yeah, not so much.

We have been bombarded by coverage of the negative side of the NFL, and that is all but inescapable.  I’m not yelling for silence when it comes to the current problem children of the league, because the news is important and we must be up to date on the news. That’s part of following the game and being a knowledgeable fan.

So I’ve followed Donte Stallworth’s ugly incident thoroughly, as I have with Michael Vick’s plethora of horrifying press clips and the all-but-forgotten failures of Plaxico Burress.  I’ve read countless columns and reports stating the same things and the same opinions, and many people have done a great job on the coverage.

Stallworth should have spent more time in jail?  I agree.  Vick’s dealings are more complicated and he has therefore already suffered a much greater penalty?  I agree.  Plaxico is facing, and deserves, serious time for his nightclub wardrobe malfunction?  I agree.

It seems pretty simple on the surface.  I keep mulling over these issues and trying to decide just exactly how I feel about them, if I feel any different than the majority of the public, if I have anything to say that hasn’t been beaten to death by the mainstream pundits, and I come up rather empty.

Except for the one true, straight-from-my-heart displeasure about all of this: This news needs to be settled if only so the fans can get back to loving, needing, and more or less craving the NFL product.

Stallworth’s drunk driving mistake is an indelible blotch that he will never remove from his psyche.  It was an accident, as I believe he didn’t intend to kill a man, but when it comes to drinking and driving, among other transgressions, no amount of whiteout will make everything all right again.

My dad used to tell me, “A mistake is a mistake, but there’s just some mistakes that you can’t afford to make,” and he was right.

In return, Goodell has suspended Stallworth “indefinitely,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if that means no football for at least this season.  Goodell is going to swing a heavy hammer with Stallworth and I’m sure he is going to use him as an example of the stricter alcohol-related penalties he wants to enforce.

Vick’s reputation has been tied to the back of a trailer and carted to hell and back over the course of the last two years.  But with news coming yesterday that Goodell has partially reinstated Vick—which will allow him to participate in training camp and play in the final two preseason games but not play in Week One—it appears as if we are making progress on his case.

Goodell’s answer appears to be a five-game suspension for Vick, assuming he signs with an NFL team.  Say it’s right, say it’s wrong, say whatever you want, but at least we have this sullied steamboat pointed to the future with a light foot on the gas pedal.

Goodell’s got one more fallen hero to deal with, and that’s Burress.  Burress is reportedly planning to testify before a grand jury on Wednesday.  Burress will hear arguments on his gun charges and is expected to ask the grand jury not to indict him, according to Laura Italiano of the New York Post.

Burress was in negotiations regarding his gun possession charge earlier this year, but those talks disintegrated when prosecutor’s demanded he do two years in state prison on a plea to a lesser gun charge.  According to Burress’s attorney Ben Brafman, Burress was willing to do up to one year in jail for his crime.

It appears all but likely that Burress is going to serve jail time, we just don’t know how much. That will be the court’s punishment, but that will not be Goodell’s punishment.  We can be sure that upon Burress’ release, Goodell will ask to have the same sitdown as he did with Vick, and then will hand out his own ban based on what he deems appropriate.

I’m not going to say what exactly Goodell should do in regards to Stallworth, Vick, and Burress.  That’s his job, not mine.  And I’m not going to use these incidents to pen opinions on the names of these men, either.

I don’t own the right to judge their actions.  I hope they serve a just penalty, and then I hope they get their lives right.  That’s all I believe in. The fine print won’t come from my fingertips.

But if I had anything to say to Goodell, it would be to act swiftly and permanently.  Make a decision, one that is within the confines of proper moral and societal judgment, and stand by it.  Then move on.

Move on because these guys need that for the betterment of their futures, which should be a main priority of a commissioner.  And move on because fans of the NFL deserve that.

I didn’t want to add to the pity party by repeating the common opinion, and acting like I know what is the absolute right thing to do in any of these circumstances, because I don’t.  Do you?  I doubt it.  I don’t think any of us do.

The only feeling I have when it comes to the issues at hand is that the mess needs to be cleaned up so we can simply watch football again.  There are millions of us begging for the horn to blow on the season with cookouts and tailgate parties to follow.  That’s a beautiful thing.

The NFL has such a great thing going that I would hate to see it interrupted once the race to the Super Bowl begins. And, fellas, we are only a little more than a month away.

You can reach Teddy Mitrosilis at [e-mail].