So, y'all remember this little entry that referenced NFL players publicly ripping Commissioner Roger Goodell for wielding too much power? Hammering down on those who step out of line? Seemingly making up punishments as he walked along the planet at his every whim? Guess who decided to suspend a player for shit he did in college before he sets one foot in the league?? Yep, that guy.
Say what you want about Terrelle Pryor, the Ohio St. QB who received money and maybe other improper benefits in exchange for selling memorabilia last year, but don't say that he has done something as an NFL player that Roger Goodell has to judge. He's not even in the Goddamn league yet. The backstory, it appears, is that Pryor so desperately wanted to get in to the NFL supplemental draft that he blew the whistle on himself and informed Goodell that there were more violations that he committed while a Buckeye that most definitely would have caused him to be thrown off the team had they been discovered by the inept investigators of the NCAA. This is relevant because normally, a player is ruled eligible for the supplemental draft only if he is not able to play football in school at all, and Pryor wasn't totally ineligible at Ohio St. He was, however, going to be subject to a five-game suspension for his actions had he returned to campus this coming fall. So instead, he dropped out of school and started lobbying to be included in the supplemental draft. The curious case of whether Pryor would be allowed in that draft climaxed in the draft being postponed by Goodell while he figured out what to do. He couldn't just hand down a ruling one way or the other, he needed time to get things straight. Apparently, it was time spent negotiating with Pryor and his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, trying to find a way to allow Pryor into the draft without sending a message to all other collegiate miscreants that they, too, can walk away from school and right into the supplemental draft if they get their spot blown up.
And this is the result?! Goodell lets Pryor into the draft (where he was taken in the 3rd round today by, no shock here, the most scatterbrained, inept organization maybe in all of sports, the Raiders) but will make him serve the five-game suspension that he would have served in college. That's unbelievable! Imagine a 20-year-old punk busted for something the NCAA considers illegal but isn't against the law, then he walks off of campus and into a job at an accounting firm, but first, they decide that he needs to stay home for the first five weeks of his employment with no pay as penance for the shit he did back in college which has nothing to do with the firm. I couldn't believe my ears when I heard this news. And the reason I say that Pryor and his agent had to negotiate this deal is because Pryor is on record as saying that he's not going to challenge the suspension. I cannot imagine this crap standing up in court if brought before a judge, but Pryor has said that he's not challenging it. I'm not breaking any news, I have no inside info. I'm just guessing that there's absolutely no fucking way Pryor and Rosenhaus let this totally unprecedented decision stand without a fight unless they were told by King Goodell that this was the only way he would allow Pryor into the draft. And Pryor must have felt he had to accept because he's persona non grata at OSU and would have had to wait a year for the 2012 NFL Draft. That would leave him with options such as the Canadian Football League or the UFL that would have paid much less than the NFL or Ohio St. and would have left him vulnerable to injury and a possible derailment of his NFL dream.
The law has been handed down, and King Goodell has spoken. After listening to players in his league fire off profanity-laced tirades and gripes about his heavy-handed style of governing, he trumps himself by deciding that free tattoos and selling golden pins while in college makes you subject to his tyranny once you step into the league. Terrelle Pryor now stands as the only player in the history of team sports to potentially have a totally clean record throughout his professional career and still have to serve a suspension. If there's someone else who fits this description, please enlighten me. And the topper on the whole thing is, this humongous deal is being made over a guy who's not good at his position. Pryor's only hope of succeeding on the field in the NFL is to switch positions because he sucks at QB. Goodell's latest whipping out of his dick and slapping it against the face of a lowly player is completely over the line, without precedent, and impossible to imagine under any other circumstance, and unless Pryor adjusts his mentality and allows his athletic talent to be used in the best way possible, it's a monumental, unprecedented decision that ended up not meaning shit.
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