It was obvious from yesterday’s other-than-boilerplate statement that the Broncos were seriously disturbed by the arrest of director of player personnel Matt Russell.
But any punishment from his boss isn’t all Russell has to worry about, as team officials fall under the NFL’s personal conduct policy just as players do.
Russell was arrested over the weekend for DUI after hitting two cars, one of them a marked police car.
As mentioned by the Denver Post in their summation of Russell’s bad weekend, the precedent for his punishment could come from the 2010 arrest of Lions president Tom Lewand.
Lewand was originally suspended 30 days and fined $100,000, but that suspension was shortened to 21 days by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell when Lewand took “all the necessary steps.”
There are obviously steps in Russell’s future.
And while Lewand occupies a higher rung on an organizational ladder than Russell does, it’s clear that the Broncos personnel man is going to have a chance to sit in front of Goodell, as so many players have.