Nonsense. Let's put Fandom aside and talk about football. The integrity of the game. We hold these athletes up as idols, people to be respected, characters our youth should aspire to. I would love nothing more than to see the Niners be healthy and strong because I WANT that competition. Believe it or not the only person on that team I hold a severe dislike for is Harbaugh. I can't stand the man screaming on the sidelines, and then all his hypocritical "holier than thou" talk whenever the Seahawks get hit with an infraction. This isn't about sadistic homerism, it's about a total lack of accountability and continuity in the league's punishments. It's about young guys getting beat down for drugs, but not for literally beating down people.
If Smith needs help, then give it to him. I'm not against that at all. We give these guys enough money and popularity to be gods, so what do we expect? But what is his motivation to change without showing him what he hath been given, can be taken away? I don't know what he did during rehab. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and say he did quality time. But guess what, it didn't work. Because no sooner is the season over, than he's using the word bomb at the airport, while allegedly drunk. So you tell me how well his voluntary rehab worked.
Oh, and about those 5 games he missed, don't quote me 2012 stats in 2014. It just seems ignorant of everything that had occurred up to that point in 2013. The Rams defense was a monster, yes, but their offense was impotent. The Texans were in a full fledged spiral. The Cardinals I'll give you were a strong team. The Titans were about as average as an NFL team can get. Jags, ha. Then he's back JUST in time for a stretch including the Panthers, Saints, Skins, Rams and Seahawks? Nope, sorry, getting one of the top defensive players back in time for that is a bit too convenient for me[/quote]
oi....I guess you just can't stop the conspiracy theorists.
I guess it just makes sense that they'd send away their best pass rusher just before playing the team that swept them the year prior, a team that was great the year prior and had very nearly beaten the Seahawks, another division rival and two bad teams...all when they are ALREADY 2 games back in their division after 3 weeks.
Teams don't think that way. EVERY game is a big game. This is the NFL.[/quote]
Gah, you're killing me Marvin. Clean the homer out of your brain and think. Conspiracy? Try strategy. Look at it this way, if you know your star defensive player (one of them at least), just got nailed for a major infraction that has previously seen players get 4-6 game suspensions, what do you do:
A) Wait around for the NFL to run its course, not knowing if the sentence will drop immediately, or 4-5 weeks down the road when you're in the playoff hunt
or
B) Work out a voluntary leave of absence when you know you have a streak of games coming up against offensively weak teams and can afford to have that link missing in your defense. Thus mitigating the NFL punishment and painting the picture of a troubled young man seeking help, immediately helping his image.
It's not conspiracy, it's rationality. It's common sense. If you can dictate the premise of the punishment for minimal impact of that player's loss, why wouldn't you? I'm amazed you don't get this. Why else would a player take a voluntary stint in rehab? As you yourself said, every game matters, so why would he miss a game voluntarily?
And the Rams were not great in 2012. They were 7-8-1. Not even .500. Even Rams fans will tell you that. Stop being so dramatic.