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Now I agree with most of what you wrote, here's the thing on Rothlessberger. The evidence and testimony by onsite police CLEARLY showed that Rothlessberger committed sexual assault on that girl. However sexual assault is very hard to prove without the help of the victim, and in this case so much pressure was put on that girl NOT to bring charges that she chose NOT to go forward, and probably wisely so.Personally, I am of the opinion that the NFL should get out of the personal conduct investigation business and follow suspension guidelines based on actual convictions by law enforcement (e.g. Murder/Rape conviction = banned from the league, DV conviction = 8 games, and so forth). And allowing NFL teams to make their own separate suspensions for PR purposes (e.g. the Steelers could suspend Ben Roethlisberger on their own without the league suspending Big Ben because he wasn't convicted).
As it relates to Tyreek Hill and the current personal conduct policies in the NFL, I believe Hill should have gotten a suspension just for verbally assaulting his own wife. And my opinion is based on current rules and precedence in suspensions handed down (e.g. Brady got 4 games for "more probable than not", Big Ben got 6 games and was never convicted nor arrested, and Reed got 6 games despite no conviction for a something 2+ years ago). In short, I think Hill got off easy under the current inconsistent policy....but if we changed the policy to what I think it should be...he would have never been suspended in my book.
Its most always a no win situation for the victim. No matter how damning the evidence the defense will put your entire life into the public. Every slip, every mistake, every embarrassing moment will find it's way into the public on any high profile case. So in this case probably a "heartfelt" apology and a few dollars allowed that girl to slip back into anonymity.
In the Hill case, Espinosa has clearly been told that she'd better not testify because if she does, the financial gravy train will abruptly end for her AND her 3 children to be.
On the Hill matter, his clear and obvious threat to her was easy grounds for a 6 game suspension. And that is true in ANY context. Even given the entire tape doesn't erase that threat, and given the violent history of those 2, there should have been a no brainer, if fact 6 games was a gift to KC.
The end result of this is that it is obvious to even the most casual observer that the NFL really doesn't have a domestic violence program, and all suspensions coming from the "personal conduct" policy are simply arbitrary exercises of decision making from Goodell. A man who was given that ARBITRARY power in the last CBA. I very much doubt he will retain it in the next one......and no one will be more pleased with that than Roger Goodell. He knows he sucked at it.