Talking about embarrassing the league, it is clear the NFL has pushed hard to cover this one up and bury it. PFT had a couple comments this morning
DOUBLE STANDARD FOR NAPOLIAN?
In the wake of the revelation that Colts president Bill Polian was required merely to make a written apology to the Jets employee whom he threw against a wall on October 1, some league insiders are baffled by the proverbial slap on the wrist that Polian received.
"He's the president of a billion-dollar company," said one league source. "What would happen if the president of any other major company physically assaulted an employee of another company? Where in America can you get away with that?"
The thinking is that the league tried to get and keep this situation under wraps in order to prevent fans from concluding that a league littered with thugs on the field might be merely following the lead of the guys who run the teams.
In comparison to an incident that occurred on the very same day -- the face-stomping by Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth on Cowboys center Andre Gurode -- Polian's conduct might seem tame. But Haynesworth's actions occurred between the lines, in the context of a game in which pushing and shoving and hitting routinely occurs. Polian is a suit-and-tie guy; there's no pushing or shoving or hitting at all in his business. (Well, apparently there is; but there shouldn't be.)
So the incidents, in our view, are identical in outrageousness. Haynesworth was way over "the line" that applied to his behavior, and Polian was, too.
League insiders also are wondering why the incident isn't getting more attention in the media. Apart from FOX's Jay Glazer, who broke the initial story, and Tom Curran of NBCSports.com, who reported on Thursday that Polian had been required to apologize, there has been nothing from anyone who gets paid to cover the sport.
No reporting. No commentary. Nothing.
Instead, Friday's Indianapolis Star features a slurp job from Bob Kravitz regarding Polian's brilliance, which recently included giving up a second-round draft pick for a nearly washed-up defensive tackle who can't be counted on to stuff the run in Indy because he really hasn't been doing it this year in Tampa.
Kravitz also downplays the issue at hand with one dismissive sentence: "That whole dust-up with a Jets employee that was reported by foxsports.com, well, we didn't see it and haven't had it confirmed by anybody on the record, so that's gone nowhere." (It'll be interesting to see what the Star writes on this come Saturday. Or Sunday.)
Meanwhile, we continue to hear examples of Polian's temper, as displayed in stadium press boxes over the years. The guy's temper is legendary in league circles, and the non-consequence imposed for laying hands on an employee of another team will, in our view, do nothing to deter him from acting this way in the future.
In fairness to Polian, we've also heard from a couple of agents who say that, in negotiations, Polian is tough but fair, and that he always has conducted himself as a gentleman.
The Jets employee who got thrown against a wall might disagree with that one, however.
