Oakland Raiders: Goodell’s Incompetent Suspension Monkeys Strike Again

The Oakland Raiders are in the midst of a playoff chase and the league just made it that much more difficult by hitting the team with a ridiculously harsh punishment.

As if the Oakland Raiders weren’t having enough trouble of their own, Monday brought news that things are about to get a lot more difficult.

The Empty Suit known known Commissioner Roger Goodell – among many other things he’s known as that aren’t exactly suitable for a family forum – and his wildly inconsistent suspension monkeys have decided to throw another wrench into Oakland’s works.

And those works were already pretty gummed up on their own, thanks very much, Commish.

In the wake of a Sunday afternoon dust-up in Oakland that saw Raiders receiver Michael Crabtree and Broncos cornerback Aqib Talib provide further evidence that they’re not on each other’s Christmas card lists, the league has dropped the hammer on both of them, suspending both players for two games.

In a letter to Crabtree, Vice President of Football Operations John Runyan – otherwise known as the guy who threw the dart at the board that determines what punishment a player will face this week – stated the following:

"“First, you punched a Broncos opponent Chris Harris in the midsection, resulting in him being removed from the game. Then, on the subsequent play, you blocked a different Broncos opponent (Aqib Talib) into the sidelines beyond the yellow media border, well after the play was over.”"

To Talib, Runyan wrote,

"“You deliberately ripped your opponent’s chain from his neck just as you did last year when you played against him. Then, when the two of you went to the ground after a subsequent play, you aggressively removed his helmet and threw it in his direction, endangering him and various sideline personnel in the near vicinity. Finally, once you were momentarily separated from your opponent, you again engaged him and threw a punch.”"

Since Runyan — or whichever ham-fisted, mealy-mouthed flunky he assigned to actually write the letters — is apparently being paid by the word in his statements to the players, and ain’t nobody got time for somebody that verbose, let’s just sum this up nice and tidy-like.

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Crabtree and Talib are being suspended for a pair of games for having a spat. A physical spat, but a spat nonetheless. A spat, mind you, that started last season – as the overly-verbose Runyan or the aforementioned flunky notes – when Talib ripped Crabtree’s chain off his neck during a game.

It was the type of punk, bush-league move that’s pretty common for Talib, but one that he was not disciplined for last year. And yet, something that now, the league sees fit to make note of as a prior offense when dispensing punishment.

Some, like Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, believe that the league is making a “strong statement” that on-field fighting will not be tolerated.

If that’s the case though, then why was neither Bengals receiver A.J. Green, nor Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey suspended for even one game when they had their little brouhaha a few weeks back? It was a brouhaha, if you recall, that entailed Green going WWE on Ramsey, grabbing him around the neck, and slamming him to the turf.

Both players were ejected from the game and fined by the league. Yet, neither was suspended for so much as a quarter. And the Green v. Ramsey fight touched off a “melee” — as Runyan referred to it – as big, if not even bigger than the Crabtree v. Talib kerfuffle.

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So, why the harsher penalty for this altercation and not that one?

Oh, right. Because apparently, when Runyan threw the dart at the board after the Crabtree v. Talib dust-up, it didn’t land in the box marked “suspension,” which probably explains it.

This is yet another classic example of the league’s problems with consistency when it comes to doling out discipline for issues both on and off the field. Most weeks, when handing down discipline for various infractions, it really does seem like they’re throwing a dart a board or are maybe spinning a wheel in Goodell’s office.

Goodell’s office has bungled everything they’ve touched. There is so much idiocy and incompetence in the league offices, it’s shocking they haven’t all been appointed to positions within the government.

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And this is simply another case that really highlights the Keystone Kops nature of the league’s disciplinary apparatus.

Now, to be fair, the whole thing could have been avoided had Crabtree done one simple thing – keep his cool.

With the team in the thick of the chase for a division title and a playoff berth, Crabtree needed to keep his wits about him, no matter the amount of trash-talking, chain-snatching, bush league garbage Talib tried to pull.

And let’s face it, this is Aqib Talib we’re talking about – trash-talking, chain-snatching, bush league garbage is SOP with the guy. He’s known far and wide as an agitator and a punk.

For all of their problems, the Raiders are in the thick of the playoff chase. The Broncos, given their revolving door of quarterbacks, each one worse than the last, is simply playing out the string. Denver had nothing to play for. The Raiders do.

And Crabtree knows this. Yet, he allowed Talib – and apparently, Chris Harris – to get under his skin anyway. That’s entirely his bad.

Crabtree put his team in a terrible position coming down the stretch because he couldn’t just walk away from a punk doing what a punk does – agitate and get into his head. That’s inexcusable. It was an entirely moronic, boneheaded thing to do.

And now, with Amari Cooper possibly missing time with an ankle injury as well as a concussion after a brutal hit by Broncos safety Darian Stewart, Crabtree is leaving the Oakland offense shorthanded and without their top two receiving threats.

Yeah, that smarts and is very likely going to leave a mark.

While it’s nice to see some real fire, passion, and fight from a Raiders squad that’s seemed to be lacking all three attributes at points this season, they need to find better, more productive ways to express it. Ways that aren’t so costly.

Crabtree knows what Talib is and should have kept his head on straight. He also knows what Goodell and his wild-eyed, slack-jawed, trigger-happy, suspension-wielding hobgoblins in the league offices are.

And given how wildly inconsistent and incompetent they are, he should have kept his head on really straight.

The Raiders beat Denver on Sunday, but by letting him get under his skin so badly that he’s going to be sidelined for a couple of games, Crabtree ensured that Talib and the Broncos won even bigger.