2017 Suspension Watch Week 13: Two for the week, eight for the year

That didn't take long.

It's clear the message from the media got to the NFL and got Goodell's attention.

There will now be THREE two players suspended this week

Joining Rob Gronkowski in appeal hearings this week:

• Pittsburgh Steelers:  Ju Ju Smith-Schuster:  One game for the helmet-to-helmet crackback block shown in the post below against Vontaze Burfict.
• He may be additionally fined for taunting Burfict after the hit.
• And then one I missed in the post above:  Cincinnati Bengals:  George Iloka will sit next week's game for this hit on Antonio Brown as Brown scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
• ... was fined $35,464 (put in blotter) for this hit on Antonio Brown as Brown scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter.  IMODO, the suspension should've stood.

Only hope I can keep that one, because the NFL highlights is the only one I can find the hit (best to watch the replay at about 4:10)-- but that was a full helmet-to-helmet tee-off on Brown, and certainly draws the suspension.

There are many additional ramifications to this.

I would have to think the Bengals, once the rest of this is figured in, are going to pass at least the first threshold for a team fine.

The Steelers are in far more serious trouble.  The Steelers are already dollar-for-dollar, so they will be fined, as a TEAM, TWO of Smith-Schuster's game checks.  Fortunately, he's only making $465,000 this year.  So he loses $27,353 in salary, meaning the Steelers are additionally fined (and this is just the suspension!) $54,706.

There are some additional facts on this rivalry that ESPN noted in the discussion on the immediacy of the suspensions, on top of the fact that it's clear it was in response to last night's criticism:

The 173 yards in penalties the Bengals had last night was a franchise record.
The last seven meetings, including a playoff matchup, in the last three years, have garnered over 1,000 penalty yards.
There have been 32 unsportsmanlike or roughness penalties (what the league calls "major penalties") in those games -- no other matchup is close, as it's almost double the number of penalties in any other matchup in the NFL over the last three seasons.

Goodell, your players are out of control, and not as the White Right want you to believe.