Roger Goodell is absolutely not applying rules reasonably. Aldon Smith is still playing the game after with all the crap he has going on, but Brandon Browner is out for smoking some pot. $50k fine for not wanting to talk to the sports press. Rules for contact that almost guarantee the destruction of anterior and medial cruciate ligaments. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

The NFL…a multi billion dollar industry that takes great pains to promote themselves at every turn….they have themselves convinced players interviews help sell those over priced game jerseys for instance that they get a cut of…
Lynch makes millions of dollars from us …as a Seahawk many fans idolize the man and I personally think a smattering of interviews over a 5 month season isnt too much to ask and the NFL apparently wants to market every player not just the talkative ones like Sherman…. It must be nice to be able to afford that…50g is worth it to Lynch rather than go thru what he feels are painful interviews that give insight into Marshawn the football player and the man.

Let’s see … there’s probably less than a dozen people in today’s media who ask reasonably good questions during press conferences with coaches and jocks. And, even good questions typically get “one game at a time” responses … besides, media hacks will write whatever they choose and, if they’re challenged as to their POV, they always get the last word so, I agree with Lynch about not talking … tho, from now on he needs to give yes and no responses.

Seems to me that most players answers most questions with vague, non-committal, generalities anyway (I think the NFL has a seminar on that for rookies) so I don’t think we are missing much.
Marshawn doesn’t exactly seem the shy sort, so maybe he has a point to make by not talking. Maybe his silence IS a statement.
Otherwise I have no problem with someone who openly disagrees with a rule and knowing take the punishment by choice. There’s a certain intergrity in that.

Art-
Just out of curiosity, what if Brandon Browner goes to court with a defense of it’s legal in Washington State (and Colorado for Denver Bronco players) to smoke pot, so how/why is the NFL barring players from playing?
Seems rather Draconian to me, not to mention outdated on how the NFL enforces their policy. Further, to cut down on injuries and make the game more creative and ‘fluid’, allowing pot use would help, eh?

Art, it just doesn’t make sense to me that a player who is obviously a non-communicator is forced to speak to the press, laying out those phrases that are a waste of time for us to have to listen to (and causes us to further consider shutting off the T.V. when the game ends). I understand that they have to abide by the union agreement, but why did the union allow this to happen? What the hell is the NFL going to do with $50,000? Marshawn knows a lot of families (many are relatives) who don’t even make that much money in a year; why can’t he donate it to them or to their betterment? I can only picture Roger Goodell and his well-heeled staff saying, “Man, we have a lot more money this year with these fines than our budget originally laid out. Let’s go to the last restaurant in town we haven’t been to yet” (in the spirit of Incognito)? Shame on them.