Will Aaron Donald be suspended?
doubledragon
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There's talk of Aaron Donald being suspended for using a helmet as a weapon at a joint practice between the Rams and Bengals, here's the video.
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He won't be. The NFL doesn't regulate conduct in practices so he can't face discipline from the league. And there is zero chance the Rams do it themselves.
What a dirtbag, the guy is a specimen and is probably in the top percentage of strongest guys in the NFL and he is resorting to using a helmet as a weapon?
That is shocking that you have freedom to do whatever you want in practice without the fear of NFL discipline?
That makes zero sense to me
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I'm seeing a lot of outrage online towards this similar to what you say, but I'm also seeing it said that if practice was regulated like a game then the suspensions would be overwhelming as fights happen all of the time. The point being that yes, this was an egregious act, but fights happen often in practice and especially in joint practices that would get many people suspended multiple games if it happened in a live game. I guess it's a slippery slope argument, idk.
But it is obvious that what he did was not within the normal accepted code of fighting, whether in practice or in game. A lot are talking about the Myles Garrett suspension. He took off Kyle Rudolph's helmet and swung it at him. Garrett told the league that Rudolph had used a racial slur against him. The league said that they found no evidence of this (I'm assuming some guys were mic'd up).
Do we know what led to this incident? Not that it matters...You don't swing your helmet. Everyone knows this. It's like swinging your bat in baseball or your stick in hockey, etc.
Tom Brady got a month off for not handing over a telephone yet I doubt we see the NFL punish Aaron Donald for this. The Rams will probably sit him for a series or two in their week 1 game as punishment while putting out a statement on how the entire organization takes CTE "seriously."
Eric
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I got no problems with fighting at all, but I got a problem with any player swinging a helmet like a Thor hammer into a crowd of people, honestly if a guy was in the crowd with his helmet ripped off it could have killed him.
Again fighting is fine but using anything other than your hands should be considered way out of the reasonable actions of a training camp scrum
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I fully support Brady in his decision to not turn over his phone. It would have been a guarantee that things he didn't want getting out would have gotten out. A lot of people live in that pretend world of "if you have nothing to hide, or didn't do anything wrong".
PS Thank you for making this thread take a Brady-turn. The GOAT doesn't get enough attention on Sports Talk in my opinion.
I'm with you on the phone. I was just getting caught up on the Brady/Gronk/Raiders thread and reading again how Gruden lost his job because the NFL had access to his personal interactions with people around the league just shows that Tom made the absolute correct choice not handing over his phone at the time.
We'll see how hypocritical the NFL,and possibly the Rams, really are by finding a way to just ignore this happened with Donald.
Once Tom comes back from his preseason vacation I'm sure that we'll have plenty of Tom Brady threads to entertain us. 😉
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
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https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/08/26/rams-should-suspend-aaron-donald-and-if-they-dont-the-nfl-should/
Myles Garrett got 6 games for basically the same exact offense. We'll see if the NFL &/or Rams actually grow a pair and do what's right.
Eric
Erikthredd’s MJ Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/publishedset/395035
Erikthredd’s Nike Air Jordan Collection: https://www.psacard.com/psasetregistry/basketball/key-card-sets/nike-poster-cards-michael-jordan-1985-1992/alltimeset/408486
As far as I know, the NFL would have to use the personal conduct policy to suspend him. There is a clause about workplace settings and violence or something. I believe the player's union would step in and challenge this. It would set a precedent for the league suspending players for actions that occur in practice. If they started doing this, suspensions and fines would be off the charts every year. Or if they just do it in this one case, there will be a massive outcry about unfair application of the rules. I'm sure someone would write an article detailing the many other times that something occurred in practice that, while not involving the swinging of a helmet, was still a severe incident worthy of a suspension under this new protocol.
All I have to say about this is, using a helmet as a weapon is a punk move, if he gets suspended?
he'll probably get his behind spanked by the Rams and get a suspended practice just to show the rams are 'concerned'............
Why not take it out of the NFL hands and have the player that got hit file an assault charge.
email bcmiller7@comcast.net
That's a slippery slope, next thing you know guys will be suing each other for penalized hits that cause injury ect..
I think the NFL should suspend him for 6 games like Garrett was, let the Rams fight the suspension, the distraction alone will at least do something rather than nothing
That looks a bit more egregious than what Myles Garrett did but since the NFL commissioner lacks a pair I suppose nothing will be done. I think Roger Goodell should be suspended for a full season.