rep to awtysst for understanding what doing the right thing is. Also, if this weren't a football game, what Andre did might be called assault. Finnegan would be guilty as well. This whole thing was legally and morally wrong. Kuddos to andre for being man enough to appolagize.
I 100% fully disagree with what you and awtysst are saying.
While I think your heart is in the right place, your heart has possibly betrayed your brain. As Geroge Clooney's character said in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?:
"It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." While I will not call you two guys a "fool," because I think that's too extreme, I will say that I think your ideology is severely misplaced. Of course, if extreme pacifism happens to be an all-encompassing moral attitude that you two guys share in terms of how it shapes your attitudes about everything else in your life, then it makes sense to me as to why you are attaching that attitide to the game of professional football.
I am not straying from the topic here, but am merely addressing your opinion and will now share my reasoning as to "why" I think the non-suspension was a good idea, and why people who are calling for the NFL equivalent of jail time are not operating in reality.
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Whoever said (and I think multiple people were saying this) that the ones who are griping about a non-suspension are people who don't play the sport and are essentially non-athletic "talking heads" is right.
The people who are elitist, "higher-thinking" persons (such as Greeny and Kornheiser) tend to have this type of shock at how barbaric and uncivilized it is to NOT suspend a guy for settling a score on the field.
How else would this be dealt with better: To just sit back and TAKE it? Or maybe those two guys should meet in an alley and be allowed to use weapons to settle the ongoing dispute?
Or, and maybe I am just crazy here, maybe handling the business ON THE FIELD was actually the best way to for it to have gone down. Why? Because the dudes were in pads (except for the helmetless head). In addition, they had about a bazillion security personnel on the field. They were able to get the piss and vinegar out of their system, under what I consider to be a very controlled environment. Notice how their fight did NOT escalate into an all-out brawl. It was about to, but it got doused and extinguished fairly quickly.
Everyone out there on the field that afternoon understood what was happening: Two guys yanking off their helmets (Which, once again, was actually a GOOD thing to have happened) and handling their business that had been brewing for years.
Enter the elitist, Oh The Horror! crowd of higher-thinking persons. To them, the holiness of NFL was tainted that day. Someone must pay. You can't allow that sort of thing to go unpunished! A travesty that they were only fined!
Pssstt...hey, over here...I got some news for ya'! The commissioner understands the difference between someone using extreme malice upon a defensless victim (such as the Haynesworth face-stomping incident) and two guys handling their business in a manly manner.
If anything, Roger Goodell and/or the NFL power-that-be earned a gold star from me due to their handling of this ordeal.
People like Kornheiser should be less worried about how the league ruled on this ordeal, and MORE concerned with how the league's officials have not been riding Innegan a lot harder and flagging him every time he touches the opposing player. They should make life so hard on him, and on his team (due to the 15-yard fould the team would accrue) that the TEAM itself tells Innegan that those shenanigans must stop immediately.
I fault the inability of the officials to effectively put an end to the antics of Innegan. This IS an area where the officials need to use bias and use their authority in an extreme manner. Mr. NFL Referee: Make it a point to send a message, please, because I am growing weary of the onslaught of bad commentary on this topic. If you don't want those fights taking place, you better start throwing the flag and getting things sorted out early and often.
Just my take on this. If ever there was a clear cut case of one guy getting what he truly deserved, it is this case of Innegan getting dealt with AND our guy not getting suspended. I think the NFL office has sent a message loud and clear. And i bet we see those personal foul flags flying a lot more when we meet up with the Titans--I have a feeling the refs have been told that THEY are the authority on the field, and that THEY are expected to keep law and order in a better fashion than they have. Just my hunch on it.
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