LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire – The New York Times reports that an appeal on the suspension of Tennessee Titans cornerback Pacman Jones for the 2007 season was unlikely.
His lawyers were thought to see little point in asking for a review, considering that N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell, who imposed the suspension for conduct detrimental to the league, also hears appeals.
Even the players’ union chief, Gene Upshaw, who has strongly supported the league’s crackdown on off-the-field misbehavior, said he advised Jones’s representatives to focus on a part of the ruling that allows the case to be reviewed after 10 regular-season games.
But then Jones went to a Mississippi casino to watch a boxing match and told an ESPN reporter that he found the suspension to be harsh and would appeal. Today, Jones will meet Goodell again in New York to make his case.
The basis of the appeal is the length of the suspension compared with those received by other players who have been involved in off-the-field misconduct. The argument was laid out in a letter by one of Jones’s lawyers that was obtained by The Tennessean of Nashville and posted on its Web site (tennessean.com).
The letter lists almost 300 instances since 2000 in which N.F.L. players have been arrested or charged. Among those mentioned are Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’s case in which he was initially charged with murder after the Super Bowl in January 2000 and ended up pleading guilty to obstruction of justice, and Miami linebacker Joey Porter’s battery charge in March after a Las Vegas dustup with Bengals offensive lineman Levi Jones.
