Well, I'm going to disagree with the vast majority of our posters here. For the first time I think the vast majority posting opinions here are acting like idjets.
I'd agree with suspending any player that has some accusation against him, but only if that rule is applied to everyone else. If its a he said/she said kind of question, suspend them both until a court of law has convicted them. Yes, that means the firefighter (like the vocal ones above) and the wife (day care worker?) both are out of work until its settled.
Statistics seem to indicate that in many of the situations, including the one above, the wife tossed the first punch. Sure, he shouldn't have hit her back. But both should be out of work until its settled. Remember, these are just accusations. Not even charges filed. So lets convict them in the court of public opinion and the media, who probably are just as bad as the football players.
So the simple fact is, you guys are wrong. If you want to take drastic punitive action based on an accusation, or a short video, its OK. But those same rules should apply against you and your children. Would you really want that?
One of the things that's not been mentioned, is the difference in employment status of the NFL'ers. They all have contracts with their teams and the NFL, and they're all covered by the NFL Players Association, and these contracts probably have some type of behavioral or "morals" clause in them, and the player agrees to abide by those contractual terms.
Now, take your example of the firefighter and the wife. Probably, neither has an employment contract which defines behavior off the job. They get into a domestic dispute which doesn't involve their jobs. Their is no earthly reason to suspend or fire either one for misdeeds outside the job.
The problem we have, is the intersection of moral behavior and legal behavior. It's immoral to abuse one's spouse. It's also illegal. However, because we're bound by a legal system, we can't hold people legally responsible until they're tried and convicted legally, or they're held responsible in a civil court.
We're beyond the 17th century, where a person could be outcast by the community. Our establishment of a Constitution eliminated that type of punishment.
If the firefighter or the wife were to be suspended or fired from work, because of the incident, what happens when one, or both, are found not guilty in the case of a trial? Let's say the best case, is that both get reinstated. I doubt that the employer(s) will be held harmless. Someone is going to get full back pay. Some employer pays twice, because they needed to replace the labor in the interim, and then they have to make someone whole.
This is an emotional issue, and out of the emotions often come bad laws, and even worse personal decisions.
Whereas the Saints are in the 4th quarter and about ready to unleash the Rob Ryan 4th quarter prevent to prevent a win!
and watch the Pittsburgh/Carolina game.
