, jailed in Massachusetts on murder and gun charges, is the current face of an NFL emergency. The number of player arrests,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], some of them multiple times, is ballooning. They're coming too fast, literally one after another.
And too often they include people dying — Hernandez is the third NFL player to be held responsible for the death of another person since Dec. 1, after the ' and the ' .
The instinctive reaction and easy solution is to lay all the blame on the player and hold him fully responsible for his own problem and the taint it gives the league,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
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But that's too easy. Those players did not evaluate, draft, sign or give eight-figure contract extensions to themselves.
Harsh punishments of such players have been tried by from the time he became commissioner seven years ago. They have failed.
It's time to wrench the train of discipline in a different direction. Who is, in fact, responsible for escorting a series of ticking time bombs into the league? The teams. From the owners through management down to the coaches. It's their turn to pay, for them to be sent a message.
Knowingly draft or sign a player that your own internal vetting process revealed to have serious legal or criminal problems, or questionable associations or untimely appearances in the wrong place at the wrong time? Sure, continue to suspend or fine that player.
But now the team that chose to look the other way, that erred on the side of the talent and upside — it should take a hit, too.
A fine of $2 million should get every team's attention. Levy it every time such a risky player with a documented history of violence is convicted or pleads to a violent crime, or one that involves guns or other weapons or alcohol.
Repeat offenders lose a draft pick. A high one, depending on the severity of the case.
Consider this: In 2010, Hernandez was considered a first-round talent but "slipped" to the fourth round, where the got what, over the past three years, colleagues considered a "steal."
Put this rule in place now — if and when Hernandez's case runs its course in the criminal justice system,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], of course — and then take a fourth-round pick from the Patriots.
Or higher, in case he's found guilty of murder.
Do the same for conviction for intoxicated manslaughter,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], for which Brent is facing charges in the death of teammate while Brent was drunk behind the wheel.
Brent was a seventh-round supplemental pick — and he had a DUI case in college that was pleaded down. If he were convicted, a corresponding deduction of a seventh-round pick would not be remotely strong enough a price for the Cowboys to pay.
Adjustments can be made for undrafted players, like ,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], a former prospect facing in New Jersey, and for free-agent signings. Even for those "nothing ventured,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], nothing gained" types like the ' fling with , whose long-ago probation for a domestic-violence incident stayed under the radar until he got involved in one last summer during training camp.
Goodell docked teams picks before, most notably the Patriots for and the for . The commissioner, and the owners who hired him, negotiated great discretionary power in the last labor agreement. For the best interests of the sport, something Goodell seems to care deeply about, he must flex that power now, against similarly judgment-deficient franchises.

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