Goodell takes a bite out of 'Pacman'
Jared Putnam

Roger Goodell, the newly appointed Commissioner of the NFL, wasted no time letting the league know that there is a new sheriff in town, one that will not tolerate thugs.

Great for him. Even better for fans.

Goodell suspended Cincinnatti Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry for 8 games. Henry has been arrested 4 times in a 14 month span. Tennessee Titans defensive back Adam "Pacman" Jones (an Atlanta native), whose most recent run-in with the law had him involved in a shooting at a Las Vegas strip club, was suspended for the entire season.

What's even more impressive is that Goodell handed down these penalties under the old conduct policy. He issued the new, tougher conduct policy at the same time as the suspensions. This new policy allows for larger fines and longer suspensions. Don't look now, but I think he might be serious about this stuff.

Now between watching a lot of sports coverage, reading a lot of sports articles, and just keeping up with athletics in general, I sometimes hear that there are so many other problems in the world, there should not be a lot of time spent on issues like steroids in baseball or criminal activity among NFLplayers.

I agree. That's part of the reason Goodell's policy is so...good. No pun intended.

There is no reason anyone should be sitting around talking about Joe Blow Pro Athlete and his legal problems. But as fans we end up doing that for two main reasons. One, because there seems to be a school of thought among some players (and society in general) that says you have to "stay true to your roots."

I've even heard Jones talk about that in interviews. Pacman apparently thinks he should keep his thug reputation while also being a multi-million-dollar pro athlete. Or perhaps create some blend of the two. Or some junk like that.

Here's another school of thought.

Just do better.

It's simple, yet profound, in its own little way.

But the second reason is that there has not been a strong enough stand taken against misbehaving athletes in the past. People are fickle. Some never will "just do better." While there are people in the world that can make the best of any bad situation, there are others that will squander every opportunity they are given.

When these people are paid millions of dollars for us to watch them play a game, they just have more to lose. We need no nonsense guys like Goodell to use that as leverage to create a few poster boys for change.

Its time that guys like Pacman had to choose being between getting to make a fortune entertaining us while acting like a halfway decent member of society, or getting sent back to the ghetto.

Goodell is doing the right thing. Throwing down the gauntlet works, and in this case, its long overdue.