Attorney Robert Del Greco Jr. worked his magic for Steelers linebackers coach Joey Porter in a court of law. Porter will have a much harder time pulling a rabbit from the hat in the Football People’s Court.
Porter still faces scrutiny under the Personal Conduct Policy, where non-players (who don’t have union protection) are held to a higher standard -- and where the NFL now disregards the outcome of the criminal justice process. A suspension remains possible, and not just for pleading guilty to a “disorderly conduct citation,” which sounds like “glorified parking ticket.”
The league will look at everything, including the video that the Pittsburgh Police Citizens Police Review Board concluded should have resulted in the pursuit of aggravated assault charges. The league won’t give a Steelers employee the same pass that the powers-that-be in Pittsburgh did.
Unless of course the league wants to. That seems to be how discipline is ultimately meted out at 345 Park Avenue, with the outcome chosen in advance and the process engineered to get there.
