The handed to Broncos kicker Matt Prater for violating the league’s substance-abuse policy , arguing, among other things, that the penalty does not fit the crime by players — . Rice was caught on camera dragging his then-fiancée out of a casino elevator after he knocked her out.
Media and fans aren’t the only ones who have argued that the NFL’s system is broken. Brandon Meriweather was recently suspended two games for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Ravens receiver Torrey Smith in a preseason game. Not only did Meriweather’s teammate call out the league …
Sketchyyyyyy… Seems a bit excessive, I mean it’s not like he knocked out his wife in a casino elevator… On video…
— Nick Sundberg (@NickSundberg)
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… but the victim of Meriweather’s hit thought the ban was unjust, as well:
I don’t think he should be suspended…but I don’t make or enforce the rules…I just play
— Torrey Smith (@TorreySmithWR)
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Of course, when rules are broken, penalties will be handed out. But given the heated debate about the league’s policies, its handling of the Rice ordeal and the number of suspensions doled out over the last few months, we decided to scour various reports and NFL tracking sites to compile all the bans that were handed down by the league since the Super Bowl in February to see how they stack up. This is not meant to argue who should or should not have received suspensions, but to show how the league has penalized each infraction.
The chart below lists every player who has been suspended (some have since been waived by their respective teams), the length of their bans and the type of violation committed by each (color-coded).
Green = substance-abuse violation
Orange = substance-abuse violation (PEDs)
Blue = illegal hit
Red = domestic violence
(Washington’s Tanard Jackson and Fred Davis were both suspended “indefinitely.”)
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2014 NFL suspensions | Create Infographics
