Donte Stallworth banned by NFL for 2009 season
Miami, FL
Donte’ Stallworth was suspended for the 2009 National Football League season after the Cleveland Browns’ wide receiver killed a pedestrian while driving drunk.
Stallworth, 28, was notified by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell that he’s been banned without pay for violating both the league’s substance-abuse and personal-conduct policies.
“There is no question that your actions had tragic consequences to an innocent man and his family,” Goodell wrote in a letter to Stallworth that was released today by the league. “In that respect, you are clearly guilty of conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence of the NFL.”
Stallworth had been drinking at a hotel bar near Miami Beach before the March 14 accident in his Bentley that killed 59-year-old construction worker Mario Reyes, police said. Tests showed Stallworth had a blood-alcohol level of .126 after the crash, above Florida’s legal limit of .08.
Stallworth in June pleaded guilty to manslaughter while driving under the influence of alcohol and received a 30-day jail sentence. He was also sentenced to two years of house arrest, eight years of probation and 1,000 hours of community service. Attorneys for Reyes’s family reached an undisclosed financial settlement with Stallworth, who signed a seven-year, $35 million contract with the Browns before the 2008 season.
Terry Chavez, spokeswoman for State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, said in June that Reyes’s widow urged prosecutors to make the case go away quickly because she didn’t want her 15-year-old daughter’s life to be overwhelmed by an open criminal prosecution.
‘Further Consequences’
The NFL at the time indefinitely suspended Stallworth, who admitted to hitting Reyes, accepted responsibility and cooperated with police. Goodell said today that regardless of the findings of Stallworth’s case in court, “further consequences are necessary.”
In addition to substance testing and treatment, NFL teams have a “safe rides” program to provide players and other employees with transportation if they’ve been drinking.
“Your conduct endangered yourself and others, leading to the death of an innocent man,” said Goodell, who met with Stallworth on Aug. 5 and Aug. 10. “The NFL and NFL players must live with the stain that you have placed on their reputations.”
Stallworth will be reinstated after the Super Bowl in February 2010, the league said. He can’t participate in any team activities during the 2009 season.
Discipline Warranted
The NFL struck the right chord in its six-month discipline of Stallworth, said Gene Grabowski, who specializes in crisis public relations as a senior vice president at Levick Stategic Communications in Washington.
“It is correctly punishing him for a terrible offense, but at the same time the league is putting a time limit on its penalty rather than making the suspension indefinite, which enables Stallworth to plan for his future,” Grabowski said. “If he’s smart, Stallworth will use the time to work for charities and to speak publicly about how grateful he is for the understanding that the NFL and the judicial system have demonstrated in giving him a second chance that many others in the same situation never receive.”
Personal Conduct
Stallworth is the latest NFL player to receive a lengthy punishment from Goodell for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.
Michael Vick was suspended by the NFL for almost two years after pleading guilty to federal dogfighting charges and serving a 20-month sentence, 18 in prison and two under home confinement. Tank Johnson and Chris Henry were slapped with eight-game bans in 2007 for violations of the NFL’s personal- conduct policy, while Pacman Jones was suspended for 20 games in 2007 and 2008 for a series of violations.
Goodell stiffened the league’s conduct rules in 2007 with the support of players, owners and union leaders after a spate of player arrests the previous season. The revisions allow the commissioner to impose discipline “even where the conduct itself does not result in conviction of a crime.”
In seven NFL seasons, Stallworth has 296 receptions for 4,383 yards and 32 touchdowns. A first-round pick in the 2002 NFL draft, Stallworth missed five games because of injury last year and finished with a career-low 17 receptions and one touchdown in his first season with the Browns.