Joe's $500K Fine Is A Rounding Error

The NFL announced today that it has suspended San Francisco 49ers owner Jed York for six games and fined him $500,000 for violating its personal conduct policy after he was arrested in an Ohio prostitution sting last August. York, who has missed the team's first three games, is eligible to return on Oct. 20, and the 49ers released a statement in which he says he "accepts the decision in full" and that his trust "will have to be earned back." via SF Chronicle

The statement is a work of art. "The man I strive to be for my family" — the man who introduced himself to an undercover officer as "Joe," in a Yankees T-shirt, basketball shorts, and $160 in cash, is now a moral compass. He hopes to teach his sons "the importance of owning up to failure," and the only person who owned up to anything was his lawyer, in a five-minute hearing the morning after the arrest.

The personal conduct policy is a menu, and Joe ordered the billionaire entrée. In 2014, Jim Irsay got the identical $500K, six-game package for a DUI. In 2019, Robert Kraft got the same charges, they were dismissed, and nothing happened. The league's punishment is not a deterrent. It is a press release.

And the $1,285 in court costs was paid by "D Cory," the 49ers' chief security officer, which is how personal conduct violations get processed on a team expense report. The local prosecutor calls the whole thing "standard operating procedure" in a county where one of 100 similar defendants got this deal, and the next man's lawyer is already in line: "I want the York deal."

YOUR TURN: If your team's security officer pays your fine, is that a punishment or an expense?