The NCAA recently issued the final punishment against the University of Michigan, for violations arising from the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal. The outcome included a 10-year “show cause” order against former Michigan coach, and current Chargers coach, Jim Harbaugh.
Former Ohio State coach, and former Jaguars coach, Urban Meyer, believes that there should be an NFL suspension for Harbaugh.
“There’s an elephant in the room here that no one’s talking about,” Meyer said on The Triple Option podcast, via Karl Rasmussen of SI.com. “When Jim Tressel was fired by Ohio State and he was given a suspension. Roger Goodell, Commissioner of the National Football League, came out and said that we’re going to honor that suspension. [Tressel] went to the Indianapolis Colts to work in the replay room. The Colts, because of the respect they had for the NCAA and the suspension, suspended Jim Tressel, so he was unable to perform his duties for the first six games of the year.”
Does Meyer think the NFL will come up with a way to replicate the NCAA sanction of Harbaugh?
“Any chance that Roger Goodell and the NFL . . . I don’t think so,” Meyer said.
We’ve previously pointed out the NFL’s effort to simulate punishments, both to Tressel and former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor. The league had no comment on the matter.
That doesn’t mean nothing will happen. It only means the league isn’t commenting.
Still, silence shouldn’t be accepted. Either they’re going to follow the precedent they’ve created, or they’re going to make it up as they go. Whatever they choose to do, they should announce it and explain it.