Many have presumed that the decision of Commissioner Roger Goodell to suspend Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for six games with the ability to reduce the ban to four games in reality represents a four-game suspension that would easily be expanded to six, if Roethlisberger gets into any trouble.
And the tea leaves have suggested that Goodell eventually will drop the suspension to four games, unless Roethlisberger somehow gets into trouble in the next four days, before he meets again with Goodell in New York. Indeed, Goodell said on August 4 that Roethlisberger “is doing what he’s been asked to do — and frankly more.”
So it would be a surprise if Roethlisberger gets more than four games. According to Mike Wise of the Washington Post, however, a surprise could be coming. Wise says, via Twitter, that Roethlisberger will get five games.
That sound you hear in the distance is the stampede of all the Pittsburgh and interested national media doing the same thing that the New York and interested national media reacted to Tim Cowlishaw’s out-of-the-blue Darrelle Revis report from eight days ago.
If the report is accurate, Roethlisberger would miss the first four games (vs. Falcons, at Titans, at Buccaneers, vs. Ravens), the bye week, and a home game against the Browns. He’s return for a trip to Miami, followed by the Halloween game against the Saints.
UPDATE: Subsequent tweets from Wise suggest that he was just joking or possibly poking fun at last week’s Tim Cowlishaw shibacle or, perhaps more accurately, being a dick. Still, I thought the old-school newspaper types were anal retentive about, you know, accuracy and credibility?