Goodell delivers message NFL supporters demanded

	In sitting down Pacman Jones for the entire 2007 season, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell delivered the message many fans were clamoring for. AP

Roger Goodell had a big decision to make Tuesday morning, but in the end it was a fairly easy one. Other than Tennessee miscreant Pacman Jones and his agent, who in the football world thought Jones didn't deserve a major whacking? Even Chris Henry, known more for getting arrested than for his considerable receiving talent in Cincinnati, knew he had a major suspension coming.

What made Goodell's ruling -- a year's suspension for Jones, eight games for Henry -- so palatable to most players is that NFL Players Association executive director Gene Upshaw is on board with it. Goodell visited the union boss last month to discuss his thoughts on player conduct, and he's kept him informed on the hard line he was thinking of taking.

Upshaw gets ripped a lot for being too buddy-buddy with the league office, but he hasn't wavered about his views on aberrant player behavior. Last fall, he told me the only thing that could derail the NFL as the most powerful and profitable sport in the country was player conduct. "And I told the players that everywhere I went this year,'' he told me then.

Upshaw hasn't changed his tune. "We believe that these are steps that the commissioner needs to take and we support the policy," Upshaw said. "It is important that players in violation of the policy will have the opportunity and the support to change their conduct and earn their way back."

Do not underestimate how vital it is that Upshaw has Goodell's back

Not that the rookie commissioner would have been shy to act anyway. By handing stiff suspensions to Jones and Henry, Goodell did what everybody who loves football -- and I mean everybody, from the screaming sports-talk hosts to the most ardent of player supporters -- wanted him to do. They wanted him to be tough, to draw a bold, straight-edged line in the sand that no one could mistake in the future.

The commissioner did not need the support of anyone to make the discipline policy tougher; he can act unilaterally, using the powers he feels are in the best interest of the sport. You can expect him to come down with suspensions for any player who runs afoul of the law more than once. Also, he'll act tough in specific and egregious acts, like domestic abuse and driving while impaired.

In making his ruling today, Goodell allowed the suspension letters he sent to the players to be made public. "Your conduct has brought embarrassment and ridicule upon yourself, your club, and the NFL, and has damaged the reputation of players throughout the league,'' Goodell wrote to Jones and Henry.

Goodell's approach reminded me of how another young commissioner, Pete Rozelle, dealt with a gambling scandal in 1963, when he banned Paul Hornung and Alex Karras for the year.

I can't think of a soul who loves this game who isn't applauding Goodell.