>Late breaking news, T.O. has been fined 35 large for spitting in Saturday night's game, but he won't be suspended.
>
>Horrible decision by the new NFL commmish....


As I'm sure you know, the DB he spit on was trash talking to him from the first play of the game. That doesn't condone spitting on the guy, T.O. should have just trash talked back, but I think the 35K fine was an appropriate response. Suspending a guy for this (on a team in playoff contention) would have been an overreaction IMO.

Speaking of overreactions, I bring you Tank Johnson <s>. What a circus. I think it illustrates the power of the media to pump up a relatively minor story to the point that it takes on a life of its own. In the space of days he has been virtually disowned by his team (although not by his teammates) and is a tick away from being run out of town. And over what? He had six unlicensed guns in his house. That's it. It's a misdemeanor charge, except he had some not much more major charges in his past for which he was placed on probation. Technically he could be violated and sent to prison over this, which an appalling number of Chicagoans seem to think would be a great idea. Uh, let's focus on the facts for just a minute. The police conducted a six week investigation. (Why? This is the great unanswered question of this whole story IMO -- s**t detector alarm going off madly). Six weeks. And what did they come up with? Failure to register guns, a misdemeanor charge which carries a $100 fine. Let me repeat and summarize that: six week investigation, misdemeanor charge with $100 fine. Then they broke down the door of his house (with nobody home) and subsequently made a highly public arrest. News updates have been given by the police commissioner himself. How nice to live in a metro area so safe this is the most pressing issue on the top cop's mind.

All of which somehow makes the Tank too much of a burden for the Bears or Chicagoans to tolerate. Pardon me while I barf.

What does the NFL think, that all of its players matriculated from the Mormon Boys' Choir? The game has violence at its core, an image the league and its network handmaidens (penetrating in-game analysis from Matthew McConaghey, anyone?) promote with replays of crushing hits and quarterback sacks. What hypocrites.