Steelers MMQB: Should players like Ward and Harrison be punished for “violations” of the personal conduct policy during the lockout?

Now with this kind of discussion always brings those people who will say, “If I did this at my job, I’d be fired.”  Yeah, you probably would.  But you don’t play in the NFL, and no matter how you try to compare it to your job, it doesn’t compare.  It’s not the same as a regular job in any way, shape, or form, so stop trying to compare it.  No one is buying your Monday work shirt, or tracking your productivity stats for their fantasy league.  Yes, they can be arrested and still keep their job, yes they can be caught doing the dumbest things you can think of and still keep their jobs, but here’s another difference, they last about 4-6 years at their jobs and then they’re done.  Just as people who didn’t fully understand the lockout from the players perspective because they kept trying to compare it to their own jobs, won’t fully understand the personal conduct policy.

We will know by the end of the week, once a new CBA is fully ratified and official, whether or not Goodell plans to punish any of these players or the others who did a little more than spend extra time with family during the lockout.  Hopefully, Goodell will realize that he can’t hold players to rules for a league he had no intention on having a season for before him and the owners realized they weren’t getting the big TV contract payday and the lockout threatened their pockets.  It might not seem like the right thing to do to give them all a “free pass” and call it a wash for the new season, but it really is.  But being “evil” and all, who knows what he’s going to do.  Until then it’s just nice to know the Steelers are in the dorms at St. Vincent College and they are as happy to be there as we are to have them there.