Again, as I’ve posted elsewhere, shouting matches, people being separated by teammates and coaches, that relatively common in the alpha male highly-competitive and emotional world of the NFL. Players often actually have fistfights.

Again, language is important. Let’s avoid strawmen and try to elucidate some of these issues and events, and find some common ground.

Well yes, and cellphone ‘contracts’ have been a bugaboo of mine for decades now.  But we don’t live under the rule of law, we are creatures to be sucked dry by the plutarchy and sedated by bread and games.

Well yes, and cellphone ‘contracts’ have been a bugaboo of mine for decades now.  But we don’t live under the rule of law, we are creatures to be sucked dry by the plutarchy and sedated by bread and games.

This is internet lawyer 101, in that it is fundamentally wrong.  Most jurisdictions clearly spell out that while assault is generally any unwanted or unconsented-to application of force, it needs to be more than trifling or transitory in nature for there to be any legal consequence.  So your 17-year-old nephew leafing…

It’s the blink of an eye, really, during the reign of error of Dan Snyder.  Still counts.

Right, and we’re getting into an angels on the head of a pin discussion here, what’s a guarantee, really.

+1

I may be wrong on this, but I think he’s cratered his own value.  He’ll have to take a one-year ‘prove-it’ contract, I bet.

Yes.  For the contract to be valid, the player has to report to work.  Events unfolded fast, and I guess Antonio’s representatives didn’t get a chance to intervene effectively on this, but when he requested a release and it was granted by the Raiders, that’s pretty above-board and hard to characterize as unfair.

To be...I dunno, fair-ish? to the Skins...they haven’t really overpaid any insane malcontents.

Randy Moss was thought to be a malcontent and a locker room annoyance for the Oakland Raiders, and he managed to keep himself in check until his last year in New England.

When the right gets a little tired or doesn’t perform as well, get on the other side and go with the left.

Thanks for keeping us on top of this rapidly developing story Lauren.

Yeah, but I’m guessing it’s academic by now, since he asked to be released from his contract and by the team, and was granted that wish, hot off the Tweeterpress.

Yeah, and I hope it’s the mechanism where the arbiter is agreed upon by the NFL and the NFLPA (such as it is), I confuse leagues and their byzantine regulations sometimes. We really should just stick to sprots.

I posted on this elsewhere. I don’t claim that Antonio Brown shouldn’t have borne “any kind of consequences”. I do claim that an employer normally has to impose a consequence that’s proportional to the infraction.

I think there’s more nuance there that you’re glossing over. I’m not saying that Antonio should skate on all of this, I think the Raiders would have been justified in applying progressive discipline, with the necessary intervening step of suspension for one game maybe, before jumping to the cancellation of all…

But I doubt that a verbal dustup between an employee and a manager merits voiding a US$30M contract, that’s hard to see as proportional.