Terrelle Pryor's Suspension, Ndamukong Suh's Hit and NFL Week in Review

These past five days have seen the media abuzz with news about the National Football League. This was certainly for good reason, as this week saw about as much interesting and controversial news stories as is possible for one sports leagues. 

Here are the top stories and my opinions on them all: 

Terrelle Pryor is Ruled Eligible to Play in the NFL, but is Suspended for the First Five Games

Roger Goodell and the NFL ruling board made a very poor decision here. In suspending Pryor for five games, the same amount that he would have been suspended had he chose to stay in college and play at Ohio State, Goodell implied that the NFL and the NCAA are directly connected. 

This is detrimental for a couple of reasons, more so for the NCAA than the NFL. The NCAA loves to tout all the time how their athletes don't necessarily go on to play professional sports. This decision, however, implies that the NCAA is very influential in professional sports leagues. I am not saying that the NCAA had anything to do with Goodell's decision, but the ruling should have been black and white. Pryor should have been eligible to play or not. This line is a far too blurred. 

Jeremy Maclin's Test Come Back Negative for Anything Life-Threatening

I, for one, was very thrilled to here this news. I obviously never want to hear of anyone getting seriously ill, and Maclin is an exciting player who I hope will be 100 percent and ready to go by the start of the season. 

The speculation about the nature and severity of Maclin's illness was overblown and not fair to the Philadelphia Eagle wide receiver's privacy. Media outlets suggested his illness was career- and even life-threatening based on no evidence other than generic symptoms of lethargy and fatigue. I think the media has to be more discreet in reporting about these issues in the future. 

Ndamukong Suh is Fined $50,000 for his Hit on Andy Dalton

I really can't believe people were even wondering about this one. This hit should have absolutely been fined. A healthy amount of seconds had passed since the play was over, and it was then that Suh slammed a helmet-less Dalton into the ground. 

Clearly, this was Suh's way of "welcoming" the Cincinnati Bengals rookie quarterback to the league, and he shook it off like a pro, but it was completely uncalled for. The fact that it was a preseason game made it even more unnecessary. 

Quarterback Battles Ensue

I won't even touch too much on the Denver Broncos situation. If you Google search, there is a plethora of fantastic Bleacher Report articles on the competition there between Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow. 

In Jacksonville, the battle between rookie Blaine Gabbert and David Garrard is heating up. Cam Newton also appears to be no lock to start in Carolina over Jimmy Clausen. And for anyone who cares, John Beck might have competition for the starting job in Washington. 

Orton should start in Denver no question, the rookies will win the battles in Jacksonville and Carolina and the Washington Redskins might as well convince Brett Favre to come out of retirement (again).

So long, NFL fans!