Donte Stallworth got inebriated, got behind the wheel, then struck and killed a man when the man stepped out in front of his car. For this, Stallworth got 24 days in jail, 2 years of house arrest, 8 years probation, and a box of chocolates.
Roger Goodell determined that Stallworth merited further punishment, and suspended him for a year. This suspension is longer than Michael Vick got on top of his time in prison (minimum 4 games) and longer than Paul Tagliabue suspended Leonard Little for killing a woman as a result of a DUI.
Some people (mostly animal-rights activists) have resisted the arguments that Vick doesn't deserve an extra-long suspension based on the precedent that was set with Little (8 games), saying that Little made a poor choice, and Vick is a poor human being. On one level, they have a point, Vick is likely a worse person than Stallworth*.
However, results matter to a league looking to protect his image. As awful as torturing and killing dogs is, it pales in comparison to killing a human. Stallworth has looked very remorseful, and has taken responsibility from the outset, but at the end of the day, he still killed a human being. Goodell got it right, and if this keeps one NFL player from driving drunk, it's well beyond worth it.
*Note: I don't include Little here because 6 years after he killed someone while driving drunk, he was caught driving drunk again. That is inexcusable and, in my opinion, should have resulted in a year's suspension from the NFL. Since he beat the drunk driving charge, he got nothing.
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