Friday, June 19, 2009

Some thoughts on Dante Stallworth.

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Dante Stallworth killed a man. At best, he is guilty of manslaughter, and legally, he is guilty of homicide. If you drink and get behind the wheel of a car, you made a premeditated decision to put other people's lives in danger. If the victim's family decided it was better not to pursue a harsher sentence for Mr. Stallworth, then that's their prerogative. But the NFL has to step up and show some back bone on this one.
Public opinion of the NFL is in a weird place. Many high-profile players have gotten in legal trouble for all kinds of offenses (Michael Vick, Plaxico Burress, and Ray Lewis to name some more salient examples), and Roger Goodell keeps talking about having less tolerance for these kinds of things. So why let a man who admitted to killing someone play again?
I, for one, would probably have been happier to know that Stallworth was sentenced to more than a month in jail for what is legally defined as murder, but it is obviously not my place to say, and I obviously don't know all the facts of the case. But the NFL has to take serious disciplinary action against Stallworth to try and salvage whatever little bit of responsibility is possible.

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