Pryor Punishment: Why the NFL Did the Right Thing in Suspending Terrelle Pryor

Let’s put away the arguments of whether or not what Terrelle Pryor did was acceptable. The simple fact of it was, whether or not you believe him to be out of bounds in doing so, he broke NCAA rules.

And now that he’s trying to get into the NFL without serving his NCAA penalties first, the NFL will be punishing him for it—and that’s how it should be.

Pryor, the former Ohio State quarterback (who was never good enough to deserve all the attention he gets) was suspended for the first five games of the NCAA season as a sanction for selling memorabilia. Instead of waiting out his punishment at Ohio State, he pushed ahead for the NFL Supplemental Draft, which will be held on Monday.

But Pryor won’t be heading into the NFL without being punished. The league announced Thursday morning that Pryor is eligible for Monday’s draft, but will be suspended the first five games of the season. The league says that Pryor was being punished for breaking rules dealing with the Supplemental Draft, and even if that is completely true (is anyone buying it?) it should be setting a separate precedent.

Before this, players (and coaches) who broke the rules in the NCAA knew that, if they can get to the NFL before the NCAA punished them for their actions, it really became null and void.

Pete Carroll did it. Reggie Bush got away with it. And now Terrelle Pryor is getting punished for it.

Maybe this will change things for the better, and rule breakers won’t have such a nice escape route paved in cash.

Some say it isn’t fair to punish Pryor at the NFL level while the league allowed others before him (Carroll specifically) to get by without as much as a wrist slap. But while the NFL should have started punishing players and coaches for NCAA violations years ago, it’s better now than never. And in using Pryor, whose case is getting far more attention than his talent is worth, the NFL has the perfect chance to show it is taking the right step in the right direction.

Running back Reggie Bush, formerly of the New Orleans Saints and currently with the Miami Dolphins, received improper benefits when he played at USC, and all he got was his Heisman Trophy taken away and the games he played at the school removed from the “official records."

As if removing records from the “Public Records” will remove them from the public mind. Removing their records from the college world hardly seems a fitting punishment for players who escaped to make millions in the NFL. I’m sure Bush can hardly contain his tears while he flounders amongst his thousands of Benjamin Franklins.

Pete Carroll was at USC from 2001 to 2009, and right when the NCAA started digging around USC for improper benefits (centered around Bush) in January of 2010, he took an NFL job with the Seattle Seahawks. USC was hit with a two-year postseason ban, lost 30 scholarships and gave up a year’s worth of victories and a national title. Carroll got nothing but a new, higher-paying job.

Enough with letting people break the rules in the NCAA and flee for the NFL. Props to the NFL for making this decision, even if it is in the roundabout way. If you break the rules, you shouldn’t be able to leave, escape their punishment and get paid to boot. And the NFL needs to keep it that way, and not just single out Pryor.

Pryor shouldn’t be able to escape his punishment completely just by jumping to the higher-profile league. Maybe once he gets drafted in the supplemental draft and fails to grab headlines in the pros, we can actually forget about him as a player. But NFL did the right thing in using him to set a precedent for NCAA rule-breaking.