Santonio Holmes Trade an Omen for Ben Roethlisberger?

Clearly, the Rooneys have had enough. By moving Santonio Holmes, the former Super Bowl MVP, to the New York Jets for a measly fifth-round pick,  they’re showing that the stupid mistakes and all of the negative attention will no longer be tolerated.

They are cracking down on the players who are bringing a bad name to the three stars, and it’s starting with Holmes.

Holmes was accused of throwing a glass at a woman in a nightclub in Orlando, which allegedly hit her and scratched her above her eye. No charges have officially been filed against Holmes, and someone else has stepped up and admitted to throwing the glass, but Orlando investigators aren’t buying it.

If they were, the case would have been closed already and the other guy would be charged. So, for now, the case remains open and word around the NFL is that Holmes could face a four-game suspension from the league office.

So if throwing a glass at someone is worth a month-long suspension without pay, and enough for your team to trade you at far below market value, what is in store for Ben Roethlisberger?

Roethlisberger has been accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year old girl in the bathroom of a bar, but so far no charges have been filed. An announcement is expected to come later today, however.

Looking at the severity of the two situations, you would think it’s safe to assume Roethlisberger would be traded by the Steelers and the league office will suspend him.

But, unfortunately, that’s not the way this is going to go down. The Steelers, along with the people in the league office, will make excuses for Roethlisberger every step of the way in an effort to protect a guy who has become a face of the league.

Not only that, but the league will do everything it can to make sure the topic is no longer discussed.

Because let’s face it, there are a lot of very good wide receivers playing in the NFL today. Most teams have multiple receivers capable of starting and there’s no real shortage of them available. There isn’t, however, enough quarterbacks to go around.

So the league does what they can to protect these guys for a few reasons. 1) The quarterbacks are usually the face of the franchise, 2) it’s become a passing league and most teams can’t win without a quarterback, and 3) they’re simply protecting a business interest.

Quarterbacks, especially high-profile ones, like Roethlisberger being associated with something like sexual assault in the press is something the hurts the NFL as a whole because of the perception it creates. Not all NFL players are guys in their late 20’s who can’t come to grips with that fact so they hang out with college kids and come on to every drunken woman that passes them, but if that becomes the perception it means a loss of money for the league.

Perception is reality, as they say, and the perception is that quarterbacks and other high-profile players are treated more leniently than the rest of them.

Hopefully Roger Goodell and the Rooneys prove me wrong, but something tells me that Roethlisberger will go unpunished and will in fact receive PR help from the league office.

(Cue the “You just hate the Steelers!” rants.)