2017 Week 12 Supplemental Discipline Blotter: The NFL gets some of it right! (UPDATED: Quite a bit less right now.)

• Denver Broncos:  Aqib Talib
• and Oakland Raiders:  Michael Crabtree

TWO GAME SUSPENSIONS.  Both appealed down to one game, as of Wednesday.


Definitely not enough now with the appeals, at the least for Crabtree, especially with the actions on the previous play, but I do believe the initial multiple-game suspensions not only sends the message to these two players, but I do believe a league and a sport increasingly on edge as this season begins to get to the latter portions here.

I do believe there was enough for Crabtree to possibly suspend him the final five games of the season, for not only the initial cheap-shot from the play before, but that his actions against Talib in the genesis of the fight endangered the safety of at least one NFL employee on the sideline, as well as the protracted nature of the incident itself, on top of the fact that Talib and Crabtree had prior history with each other.

Talib and Crabtree both appealed and got the suspensions halved, but, through, now 12 weeks of the season, they become the fifth and sixth NFL players suspended for ON-FIELD, DURING GAME conduct.

This is the second time the league has had to suspend Talib, the first being for an eye poke in 2015.

2016 had no such suspensions.
2015 had four.
2014 had three.
2013 had four, and a fifth overturned.

The lost salaries mean both the Broncos and Raiders are responsible for a $50,000 penalty against their Club Remittance totals.  (Both are in the $550,000-$600,000 range, so even the one game gets the max-out here.)

The Raiders, who now have had their second on-field conduct suspension of the year, are fined an additional $50,000 for reaching the first threshold, and almost certainly will be fined over $100,000 by the time this is fully investigated, as they will probably shoot straight through the final threshold to dollar-for-dollar territory.

(Speaking for myself, I think it is becoming far past time for the NFL to take a look at this situation in Oakland and re-evaluate whether it might be wise for Oakland to stay in Oakland for the second lame-duck season, or whether it might be better to explore options like Sam Boyd Stadium for one season -- the UNLV campus stadium.)

Denver was one of the lower-level fined teams, though this incident may cost them the first $50,000 threshold once it's all said and done.