A Miscarriage of Justice
 

Even under Roger Goodell’s six year watch, the punishments haven’t matched the crime in my opinion. In March 2009, after killing a man while driving over the legal limit, Donte Stallworth was suspended for one full season by Goodell — the exact same punishment doled out to Jon Vilma for applying hits on the football field.

Now look, I’m not trying to say a “bounty” or “pay for performance” scheme should go unpunished. But I will say it is clear the NFL has its priorities out of whack. When a player receives the same (or greater) suspension than those who have literally driven under the influence of alcohol and killed people, then there’s something wrong. I need to make this clear though, the blame doesn’t fall just on Roger Goodell and the NFL. The NFLPA deserves equal blame. I understand that the union’s job is to protect their members at all costs and to the best of their abilities, but that protection shouldn’t come at the cost of innocent lives.

A Miscarriage of Justice | Third Down Conversion

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

Jeez im shocked.

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

Last year we all saw a player who literally stomped on a player laying on the turf. He got two games.

Vilma didn't hurt anybody. He got 16 games. 8 times worse. Makes no sense.

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

... yeah, people keep on bringing Donte Stallworth for killing a man, but they should give Stallworth the same benefit they are asking for Vilma: get the facts. There is no question Donte was driving with a blood alcohol level higher than the legal limit, but it is not like he drove onto a busy sidewalk and killed a man. The man who died was attempting to cross a highway in the twilight. Dead dude should share the blame for attempting to cross a highway at a location other that the one marked for crossing, and not even looking to check for on-coming traffic.

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

WOW! What a hot breaking story! It's only been, well months since all this came down and now someone finally says this in "print". Not the first time I've heard this, but the first time I've seen it officially written about. The coaches and players were "punished" as examples not for their offenses. Our Supreme Court has ruled against that time and again.

As an aside, Stallworth got off easy. The other guy that should share the blame got the death penalty. Just sayin'

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

That's what happens when you don't follow you mommy's advice to cross at the corners or pedestrian crossings, and no matter what, you always look both ways before you cross. Especially on 4 lane highways with a posted speed limit of 55 MPH.

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

It's also what happens when you drink and drive... I pray you never lose anyone to a drunk driver.

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

I went on record with the opinion he should have been suspended for the remainder of the season for that little stunt & for the immature way he refused to accept responsibility for his actions, but moving on ...

These two quotes from the link sum it up for me:

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

Really? When you drink and drive people just run in front of your car on 6 lane highways with posted speed limits of 45-55 MPH? That Stallworth was legally drunk at the time had nothing to do with this Reyes guy running across a 6 lane highway without looking.

Could it be that Stallworth could've done something (brake hard/faster/earlier, steer around, etc) if his blood alcohol was under the limit? Would Reyes still be alive? Maybe. We don't know that. But, surely, had Reyes walked to where the stoplight is, and crossed the highway on the pedestrian crossing, I am 99.99% sure we would have survived that morning.

I am not absolving Stallworth for drinking and driving. That's obviously wrong. And I know all I need to know about drunk drivers. I have experienced drunk drivers in person, twice. Once my mother and I almost got killed by one in an accident that looked like one of those old Harold Loyd movies. The other time I somehow was able to steer away enough from a drunk driver who jumped into my highway lane in front of me going the wrong way; still got clipped and spun around a few times, but no flip and didn't hit anything else, other than the drunk driver's face, multiple times.

But, at the same time, I can't absolve someone from blame for doing something that was pretty much ingrained in my head not to do since I was a kid. Paraphrasing my grandmother: "when you cross the street, always cross at the corner and make sure you look both ways even if you have the right of way. If the car doesn't stop, you can get killed".

And by the way, there are laws against jaywalking. Reyes himself was breaking a law designed to protect him. As per the Florida Pedestrian Law Enforcement Guide:
Notice it doesn't say "...when an approaching drunk driver"

So, what did we learn today?
1. Drunk driving, bad.
2. Crossing a 6 lane highway with a posted speed limit of (I believe) 50 MPH without looking both ways at upcoming traffic, not on a signalized intersection, bad.

Re: A Miscarriage of Justice
 

Crossing lanes of traffic and crossing Godhell is bad.