How the NFL Works

The NFL has earned a reputation as the nation's best-run professional sports league. Here are two incidents that illustrate the thinking that underlies NFL's vaunted management style.

In early October, Baltimore's Terrell Suggs and Ed Reed were fined $15,000 a piece for making contact with officials during the Ravens loss to the Lions. While Reed shoved the official, Suggs' contact involved his face mask touching the bill of the ref's cap while he was arguing over a roughing the passer call. Suggs' contact may have been unintentional, but the NFL is to be applauded for cracking down on this type of conduct. After all, the integrity of the league is at stake in these situations.

Now, just to show you that the NFL isn't afraid to exercise some discretion, it announced yesterday that no action would be taken against Saints owner Tom Benson, who went on a teensy weensy rampage after the Saints' loss to the Dolphins last week. Benson reportedly smacked and grabbed at a television camera (with a cameraman attached to it). This was followed shortly by Benson reportedly "cursing and stepping toward a fan who was taunting him before members of Benson's entourage pulled him back."

NFL mouthpiece Greg Aiello announced the league's decision not to take action against Benson yesterday. He noted that he reviewed the tape, and the incident "appears to be nothing more than a brief heated exchange with a member of the media that was caught on camera" and that "it's not the first time in the world of sports and entertainment that something like this has occurred." Greg, you're so right. After all, Mr. Benson's been under tremendous stress lately, as the liquid H-bomb that was dropped on New Orleans put a crimp in his plans to pull a Modell on the Crescent City and move his team to San Antonio or Los Angeles.

Now, some of you probably can't understand the distinction between fining a player whose contact with the official involved touching the bill of his cap $15,000 and not fining an immature jerk of an owner who attacks a cameraman and has to be restrained from going after a fan. Let me explain the distinction to you: Tom Benson is a rich white owner, and Terrell Suggs is a rich black player. That's how things work down on the NFL plantation.