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In case you missed it earlier this week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that all indications coming out of the league’s office are pointing to Greg Hardy’s 10-game suspension actually being upheld by league arbitrator Harold Henderson. This really shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise as Henderson is a former NFL executive and the league’s current legal consultant who has, to this pointed, sided with commissioner Roger Goodell on all of his handed down suspensions.
He upheld the season-long suspension of the Cleveland Browns’ Josh Gordon for his repeated substance abuse, and he also upheld the indefinite suspension of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for his alleged role in a child abuse case. In both cases, however, his decisions wound up being overturned — one by the adoption of a new substance abuse policy by the league and the other by the overruling of his decision by U.S. District Judge David Doty. And if he does decide to uphold Hardy’s 10-game suspension, it is likely that that case will also at some point reach Doty again with the hopes that he will once again reverse the decision of the league.
The fact that Henderson is taking so long to make a decision is a clear indicator that the league is being intentionally stubborn and continues to display this bullying attitude in regards to its players. They know that ultimately this decision will and should get reversed, but instead of doing the right thing and recognizing that they can no longer suspend players for an arbitrary number of games, they continue to try and use childish tactics to dissuade players from even questioning their authority.
At this point, only time will tell how much influence Henderson actually has when it comes to making the final decisions on players’ suspensions.
Kelly Anderson is a blogger for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @bgipp01 or add him to your network on Google.
