You Can Put The Sweater Vests Back In The Closet…

For six weeks, anyway…

After letting my opinions be known about the Jim Tressel situation yesterday we now have word that the former head coach of The Ohio State University has also been handed down a suspension to start off his NFL career. His suspension is for six weeks while his former starting quarterback at OSU will be out for the first five weeks of the season.

This is exactly what I had wanted Roger Goodell to step up and do. The only problem is he didn’t do it. The Indianapolis Colts did. Who knows what Goodell would have done, if anything, if the Colts hadn’t suspended Tressel themselves.

I imagine that when the Colts hired Tressel they didn’t really think much of it at the time and weren’t ready for the negative backlash it brought but once they did they just decided it wouldn’t be worth the hassle to listen to people’s opinions about the Tressel/Pryor situation and got in front of it before the NFL did.

Which makes me wonder if the Colts hadn’t suspended Tressel for six games would the NFL of done so? We might not ever know unless Goodell comes out and hands out some more sanctions to Tressel but I have a feeling this suspension was approved by the NFL.

This is a win-win for the Colts and the NFL. The NFL doesn’t have to make any official decision that would have been scrutiniezed by fans, players, and members of the players association and the Colts can say they admit that what Tressel did during his time in college was wrong and hope that the whole thing goes away.

Now we just await the ruling on Pryor’s suspension appeal to see what the next chapter in this saga brings about.