Some would say NFL Network gave analyst Brian Baldinger too much of a penalty by suspending him for six months without pay. Some would include Baldinger.
“The punishment doesn’t fit the crime,” Baldinger told NJ.com.
Baldinger is right; the six-month banishment feels like a termination. There’s a good chance that’s what it will become. When Baldinger returns in six months, NFL Network may decide to simply pay him to stay home over the balance of his contract, whatever it may be.
Moreover, it’s hard not to wonder whether the league-owned TV operation would have imposed the same degree of discipline if one of its primary on-air contributors, while paraphrasing what Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz should be telling his players, suggested that the team should try to knock Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott out of the game. While the comments crossed the line when Baldinger used the “B” word, would Michael Irvin or Marshall Faulk or Deion Sanders or Steve Mariucci have been suspended six months for saying the same thing Baldinger said, especially if it happened not on NFL Network’s air but on a local radio station?
During Warren Sapp’s time with NFL Network, he accused tight end Jeremy Shockey of being the “snitch” in the Saints bounty scandal during an NFL Network appearance. Sapp, in response, was suspended 30 days and reminded Sapp that he’s not a reporter. The league later picked up the option on his contract. (Sapp remained employed by NFL Network until he was arrested for assaulting a pair of prostitutes in Arizona.)
And so the notion that excuses are made for the stars and examples are made of the scrubs applies not only to sports teams but also to sports broadcasters — and to pretty much every other business in America and beyond.
This doesn’t change the fact that Baldinger made stupid comments. But a six-month suspension is a lifetime in this business, and it won’t be a surprise if, as to Baldinger, that’s what it eventually becomes.