Suspension Appeal/North Dallas Thugboys Blotter 8/30/17: One bitch gets reduced, another threatens to blow the whole shebang up.

First, one has been completed:

• Cincinnati Bengals:  Vontaze Burfict's five-game suspension has been reduced to three by an NFL arbitrator.  His coach, Marvin Lewis, stated the level of dirtiness of the hit could not be seen in real time.  (ESPN)

And if we wanted any proof left that the old NFL guard wants to see people killed on the field, here you go.

You don't need a frame by frame -- it's that classic "headbutt uppercut" you've seen a number of times in the NFL (the infamous Rocca cheapshot by a Baltimore Raven in the preseason and Kurt Warner's last NFL hit, to state two).  It's a fucking cheapshot every time.

But, once again, his team and the league have to protect the league's dirtiest player, lest they come out, have to throw him out of the league, and admit that there are animals let out on that playing field who have no business being employable in any realistic capacity.

Of course, given what might be announced next week, it sounds to me as if that may be the LEAST of the NFL's problems.

• If Roger Goodell really wants every disciplinary control over the players nullified, he may soon get his wish from Ezekiel Elliot, the Dallas Cowboys, and their lawyers.  Elliot, the Cowboys, and the NFLPA are preparing a "nuclear option" if when the six-game Elliot suspension is upheld. (Yardbarker)

Look, I make no secret that Roger Goodell believes in "Football Over All Life", and would much rather see his players rape, pillage, murder, plunder, and all else their way through the rest of the country.

That said, as evidenced today, the sport itself is coming under increasing scrutiny to clean up it's act.

The Vincent Frank Sportsnaut article states that any upholding of the suspension will almost certainly go to immediate court action.

The NFLPA is even taking this to a matter of competitive balance:

“They don’t know what they’re doing. And that’s what I think everyone is upset about. … I think it speaks to competitive balance. … this thing has gone on for a long time,” NFLPA president Eric Winston said earlier in August, via ESPN. “This thing should’ve probably been resolved a long time ago. It’s all part of it.”

Winston is not completely wrong when you think of it.  NFL fans (and conspiracy theorists such as myself) were positing the status of the investigation all of last season, and the day of the loss to the Packers in the playoffs was the real public indication Elliot was getting investigated at all.

And, if we're going to go there, I posit the following:

The thugs on the Dallas Cowboys and the national public embarrassment they have become have NOT cost them one Super Bowl appearance.

They've probably cost them TWO.

I forgot, until I had to research this, that Greg Hardy was actually on the Commissioner's Reserve List for almost all of the 2014-15 season -- the season that ended, for the Cowboys, on that call on the Dez Bryant "catch" in Green Bay.

But here's what basically is believed will happen:

• NFL upholds the suspension.
• NFLPA sues for a stay in Southern New York and gets it.
• NFL sues in the New York Court of Appeals, citing the NFLPA is overreaching.
• The NFLPA will eventually sue to have a good portion of the current CBA nullified, and either money damages and/or the immediate termination of Roger Goodell, up to and including the United States Supreme Court.

Now, the US Supreme Court would probably rule for the owners, but right about the time the current CBA expires, which would ensure either the end of the NFLPA as a union or no 2020 season or a scab 2020 season.

And there's another reason the Cowboys would want in:  If Elliot's suspension stands and no outside action is taken, then Jerry Jones is on the hook for at least six players under his responsibility suspended this offseason (Elliot, DaMontre Moore, Shaquelle Evans, David Irving, Randy Gregory, Rolando McClain).

This would mean the NFL would fine the Cowboys 40% of all lost salaries during the situation.  All figures from Spotrac.

• McClain garners no further penalty in this regard, last year was the last in his contract.
• Gregory's penalty is based on his 2017 salary of $781,813.
• Evans garners no further penalty, as he was cut, so no salary lost.
• Moore is $97,058 lost.
• Irving, $144,706.

Meaning that, unless Elliot's suspension stands and is served, Jones has to cut a check of a little over $400,000 to the league.

Elliot would lose over $2,000,000, forcing any such team fine to the maximum allowed under the Club Remittance Policy.