Colts owner Jim Irsay has formally been charged with two misdemeanor counts of impaired driving and has had his drivers license suspended for a year, but everyone is still waiting for the NFL’s punishment. ESPN’s Jeff Chadiha believes the NFL must make a statement in the form of docking the Indianapolis Colts’ draft picks.
Chadiha believes that the rumored suspension and/or fine would not send a lasting message, but by punishing his team he could get the message.
A $1 million fine certainly would hurt any player who wound up with such a penalty. On the other hand, NFL teams are extremely valuable commodities, and it's fair to think the Colts are worth well over $1 billion to Irsay. That franchise probably nets $1 million on a bad week.
Draft picks, however, carry an entirely different level of impact. They directly affect a team's ability to compete, and losing them hurts everybody in the organization. If owners really are to be held to a higher standard under Goodell's policy, then they should feel the pain where it hurts most. Owners always can make more money. It's far more difficult to recover from the pain of not being able to add a player to your roster in a sport where competitive balance shifts on an annual basis.
If the Colts were to get docked draft picks it would send a ripple effect throughout the league that the owners are held to this higher standard. Goodell’s zero-tolerance policy would extend to the untouchable owners of the NFL and show the players that he isn’t biased by any means. The players and the NFLPA would have no choice but to praise Goodell for his boldness to punish an organization for the sins of their highest ranking official.
[ESPN]
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