NEW YORK — Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth was suspended without pay for this season Thursday after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter in June. He cannot participate in any team activities until he is reinstated after the Super Bowl. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Stallworth placed a "stain" on the reputation of the league and all its players.
Stallworth, who played for Tennessee in college, struck and killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol March 14 in Miami. He pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony June 16 and was suspended indefinitely by Goodell two days later.
Stallworth was given a 30-day jail sentence and reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the family of Mario Reyes, a 59-year-old construction worker who was leaving his job as a crane operator.
In a letter to Stallworth released by the NFL, Goodell wrote that he didn't take into account the sentence in determining the 28-year-old player violated the league's substances of abuse and personal conduct policies.
"Your conduct endangered yourself and others, leading to the death of an innocent man," Goodell wrote. "The NFL and NFL players must live with the stain that you have placed on their reputations."
Police said Stallworth had spent the night drinking at a Miami Beach club and had a blood-alcohol level of .126, above Florida's .08 legal limit.
I feel sad that Donte is going to get off cheap considering that the homicide was created by him. Why is it with a little money, the worse that you get is a slap on the wrist. The ideal of sentencing him before he goes to court is unfair in one sense. I think that the one thing that should have happened is after he was sentenced then suspend him from the league. Goodell Created an arbitrary action by getting involved in something that does not concern him. In my mind itd grounds for a law suit...
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