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.

The Juice is Loose: Russia DISQUALIFIED, Individual Russians Deemed Clean Will Compete Independently

(BLOGGER'S NOTE:  I had actually written a preparatory story first -- the decision was actually publicized while I wrote that post, so I appended it.)

We're back to this story again.

The International Olympic Committee will announce sanctions today after a three-year investigation into the state-sponsored doping and Games-fixing that the Russians did to pad their medal count in the Homophobe-lympics in Sochi in 2014.  It is widely believed that disqualification is on the table.

A second McLaren report in 2016 (post-Rio) has alleged that over 1,000 Russian Olympic entities conspired to create a new Eastern Bloc-ish state drug policy to pad medal counts.  It took a whistleblower to get key access to Russian lab records from Sochi-era events.

Options appear to include:

• A fine
• Returning the process back to the individual sport federations, like Rio -- including direct pressure on the most-involved sports.
• The complete and final disqualification of Russia from all Olympic competition until the state-sponsored doping is deemed cleared.
• The last stop short of it:  Having to declare individual athletes, case-by-case, clean -- and then they don't compete under the Russian flag and anthem.  (They would end up "Independent Olympic Athletes".)

I mean, let's be blunt:  If there is a difference between the USA and Russia in this regard, the USA basically punts it's drugs to the individual-athlete level, and winks and nods at it.

This, if it's true, is another level entirely -- and, since the government, etc., is involved, complete disqualification is the only solution.

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EDIT TO ADD THE DECISION:

As I was typing this, the decision was announced:

They went with the "last stop short of it":  The Russian Olympic Committee has officially been suspended and thrown out of the Olympic movement.  No Russians will be accredited to attend the PyeongChang Games.

Individual athletes from Russia can apply with a special Olympic panel to compete in PyeongChang (and I would assume Tokyo and onward, unless the sporting community blackballs Russia completely), and, if found clean, will compete as "Olympic Athletes From Russia" (Olympic Code: OAR), under the Olympic flag and anthem.

I don't think it's enough.  I would've, at minimum, gone "Independent Olympic Athletes" to remove all reference to Russia.

But this is significant:  It's the first time a nation has been tossed, and this is permanent until compliance, for a drug situation.

I anticipate this will not be the last word on this matter.

The NFL got what it wanted, needed, and deserved Monday night: A bloodbath, and criticism for it...

Pittsburgh and Cincinnati had a prolonged fight last night, disguised as a purported Monday Night Football contest.

The NFL has got some real questions to answer this Tuesday morning about a number of incidents and near-misses of getting a player killed last night -- and this, barely 24 hours after the Rob Gronkowski elbow-drop in Buffalo...

The first thing people need to understand is that the 2017 NFL season has been one of dirty cheap shots, defense, and the most-fined teams being up near the top of the standings -- and if you don't think that didn't register, as of last week, New England was the bottom team before Gronkowski's suspension.

Ryan Shazier nearly died on this hit.  He suffered a spinal contusion and remains in the hospital as of this morning.


Self-inflicted, unnecessary, head down, and got the ball-carrier in the ribs and almost killed himself as a result.

We usually speak of Vontaze Burfict in terms of HIS dirty hits. And I can't say, for the life of me, that there isn't some degree of "he got this one because of his reputation". This one's gonna leave a mark, though:


That's not a "peel-back block". That was a helmet-to-helmet hit, designed to end someone's career. Ask Kurt Warner.

And you have some of the "First Take" talking heads doing their best to paper over it.

Why?

Because the NFL community, starting with ESPN's Jon Gruden, took great issue with last night's game.

Here's the facts:

If the White Right protesters really wanted to make their mark, they'd accuse Goodell of letting the game, the entire sport, and the players they do hate get completely out of control.  This has been probably the worst year yet, and the most obvious one, for dirty hits, cheap shots, and the messages not getting received with Fine Friday and all that shit.

THE PLAYERS ARE OUT OF FUCKING CONTROL.

Consider:  Two weeks, Pittsburgh plays New England to basically set the rest of the narrative for the NFL.  (And then, New England plays Buffalo in a rematch where Gronkowski is going to get cheap-shotted.)

I agree with anyone, now, who says the game cannot be saved -- that is correct.  But this is extra layers on top of it.  Someone, last night, went out there to end someone's career, if not life.

American basketball is rapidly having enough of LaVar Ball

Two stories about basketball's biggest idiot:

• Second son/meal ticket LiAngelo Ball will never play a game for UCLA.  LaVar has just pulled him out of the school.  This, to me, almost ensures a couple years in Europe (if Adam Silver and other commissioners don't get smart and have some real consideration of throwing LaVar and at least LiAngelo out of the league.  (Word is he was not going to be drafted this year.)
• Which see what the LA Lakers did today:  The media will no longer be allowed in an area where family and associates of players congregate after games.  This is to shut LaVar Ball up.

Somebody's going to have to find a way to separate LaVar from at least two of these kids and throw the former out of any kind of contact with basketball.  If not, they may to throw them all out!

He's out of control, and it's clear it's getting worse.  Get a handle on it before you have a real mess.

Week 13 Suspension Blotter

• New England Patriots:  Rob Gronkowski, 1 game for elbow-dropping Tre'Davious White of Buffalo when he was already down.

BULL FUCKING SHIT!!!

Goodell, and this is even if the one game sticks, you're a fool!!!

Watch the clip.  That was a full Dwayne Johnson job and injured the guy -- you could well have suspended Gronskowski the rest of the season defensibly!!!

But he has to be back for the only remaining regular-season game that matters, right?  The one remaining regular-season game that might dictate the entire NFL narrative until February...

Gronkowski now becomes the seventh NFL player to be suspended this season on the field.

Goodell, you got a fucking problem.

More Week 12 Blotter, and a look ahead to Week 13...

First, the look ahead:

• It's at the "sources say" level, but Baltimore Ravens:  Jimmy Smith:  Suspended the final four games of the season for PED's.  Not that it would matter, he tore his Achilles yesterday.
• But the next one might be big.  Several months ago, a Wikipedia vandalism actually proposed that New England's Rob Gronkowski was going to be suspended for drugs.  It sounds like he might finally hit the suspension blotter, but, instead, for this CHEAP SHOT...

This is one of the dirtiest, most disgusting acts I’ve ever seen on a football field. I’ve lost all respect for Rob Gronkowski. He shouldn’t play another snap this season.pic.twitter.com/zHZD3awI4L

— Rob Lowder (@Rob_Lowder) December 4, 2017

That's MULTIPLE GAMES right there. (He'll get one at most -- the league needs him for the Pittsburgh showdown in two weeks.)

That's a blatant WWE job right there, and sent the Buffalo player to the concussion protocol.  (Surprised it didn't send him straight to the hospital.)

As of today, it IS in the Supplemental Discipline discussion, probably meaning we hear about a suspension by the end of the day today or tomorrow.

But it appears as if the league has kept a lid on anything further for last week.

2017 Week 12 Fine/Suspension Blotter: Penalties for Broncos-Raiders exceed $1.2 million

• Green Bay Packers: Richard Rodgers: $24,309 for a targeting block – a block in which the helmet is used to battering-ram.
• That's the Packers now over the first threshold for another $50,000 fine.

From the big fight in Oakland:

• Oakland Raiders: The “contact with an official ejection will cost Gabe Jackson $30,387.
• And that's both thresholds in one week for the Raiders. That's $100,000, both fines for both thresholds, and they're dollar-for-dollar starting with some of Jackson's fine.
• The only other fine from the brawl: Denver Broncos: Shane Ray: $12,154 for involving himself with three different players in the fight from Oakland.
• Denver Broncos: Later in that same game, Darian Stewart: $24,308 for a helmet shot.

Pro Football Talk has the total from the incident at a huge number, and that's not even close to right.

$570,934 for Talib's suspension

$407,897 for Crabtree's

$30,387 for Jackson

$24,309 for Stewart

$12,154 for Ray

Those are right.

But then you also have to add the Club Remittance penalties:

$50,000 for the Broncos for making the first threshold.

$50,000 for the Raiders for making the first threshold.

$50,000 MORE for the Raiders for making the dollar-for-dollar threshold.

$8807 for the Raiders in dollar-for-dollar fines.

So, in total, that game got a team fine for the Broncos of $50,000 and a team fine for the Raiders of $108,807, for a grand total of just over ONE MILLION TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.

• Cleveland Browns: Bryce Treggs: $12,154 for taunting.
• Cleveland Browns: Jabrill Peppers: $24,308 for another one of those lean-in helmet headbutt jobs that most football masturbators are calling a “football play”.
• Los Angeles Rams: Blake Countess: $24,308 for a defenseless receiver hit that concussed the other player.
• And on the drugs front: Carolina Panthers: Charles Johnson: Suspended 4 games for PEDs.

More to come. LOTS MORE.