TheDeuce

I think the NFL has done a giant disservice to its fans in this entire ordeal. When I look at punishments for players, coaches, and franchises, I see two main methods: suspensions and fines.

Fines obviously affect whoever is being fined, and really nobody else. Suspensions, on the other hand, affect the person being suspended, the rest of the team (who may not have had any involvement with the behavior), the franchise as a whole, and most importantly the fans (who really had no involvement with the program). In other words, there's a lot of collateral damage when you suspend somebody.

If the NFL wanted to really hammer home the message that the bounty scandal should never happen again, they could have fined the players out the wazoo, and that would have been a very strong incentive about foregoing any plans for future bounty programs. Instead, they suspended the players, also a strong incentive, but in doing so they've weakened one of their brands and disallowed the team from fielding as competitive a team as they otherwise would have.

I guess my point is that they could have fined the players, coaches, GM, millions and millions of dollars, and that would have gotten their attention. What they did instead was suspend people which ultimately punishes the fans because they don't get to watch their favorite players, coaches, etc. For a league that is competing for fans' attention, worsening the product on the field seems counterintuitive.