NFL Lynch expects suspension as Stallworth awaits results of drug & alcohol test

Posted on 19 March 2009 by Tom Ferda.

The NFL certainly is finding a way to dominate the sports headlines throughout their offseason with marquee players (AP Photo/Don Heupel) like Terrell Owens and Matt Cassel changing teams while mock draft boards are being shuffled like a deck of cards.Unfortunately, much to the displeasure of Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the news is not football related. Matt Jones, Albert Haynesworth, Marshall Lynch and Donte Stallworth are the latest players to find themselves in trouble with the law.

Buffalo Bills RB Lynch expects to be disciplined after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge related to his arrest last month in Los Angeles.

Lynch was charged after police found a 9 mm semiautomatic weapon in the trunk of his car. Lynch pled guilty to having a concealed firearm and was sentenced to three years of probation and 80 hours community service.

While Goodell contemplates suspending Lynch, he awaits the outcome to another weapon case regarding one of his players; New York Giants’ receiver Plaxico Burress who shot himself in the leg while trying to bring a loaded handgun into a night club in New York.

In another incident earlier this month, Cleveland Browns receiver Donte Stallworth hit a killed a pedestrian in the early morning hours on a busy causeway near Miami Beach. Stallworth has been cooperating with the police and provided blood for a toxicology test.

Lynch is the only player to have met with Goodell thus far and although he appears to sincerely regret his incident, he expects a suspension from the league.

“It was a real productive meeting, [Goodell] stressed he will not tolerate any more screw-ups from me. I honestly see a suspension coming” said Lynch. “I feel with the incidents I’ve had, I’m young and I’ve grown through those situations. I’ve seen what these situations have put my family through, the team and the organization through and that’s not what I’m about.”

Stallworth also released a statement showing remorse and said he is “grief stricken” concerning being involved in the motor vehicle accident that took the life of a family man returning home from work.

Normally the negative publicity from situations like these find a way to fade away over time but with the league just settling down from the Burress incident and Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones’ latest ordeal in an Atlanta nightclub, Goodell may find himself out on another intense damage-control campaign soon.