I don't know if an investigation would have meant a thing, but considering what they did to Gruden ,Vrabel’s role in the alleged affair and negative publicity needed to be addressed better than the NFL seemingly implying it's nothing to be bothered about
>In the recent article from Ben Strauss of ESPN regarding the reaction to the emergence of the photos, Strauss points out that the NFL says it's "
not reviewing Vrabel’s behavior" under the Personal Conduct Policy.
As explained last Saturday, the policy's list of prohibited conduct ends with a catch-all provision applicable to “[c]onduct that undermines or puts at risk the integrity of the NFL, NFL clubs, or NFL personnel."
Rules that can be applied so broadly give employers the ultimate discretion to make case-by-case decisions as to what does and doesn't run afoul of the relevant standard. All too often, those rules can be invoked against employees the employer doesn't "like," with the employer not using them as to employees with whom the employer has no pre-existing beef.
Case in point: Raiders coach Jon Gruden was pushed out swiftly after emails from a decade earlier (sent while he was employed not by an NFL team but by ESPN) emerged in October 2021. Nine years earlier,
Saints coach Sean Payton was suspended for a full year based on defensive coordinator Gregg Williams's utilization of a locker-room bounty habit that was later deemed by former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue to have been a cultural issue throughout the league. (Indeed, the NFL ignored once the Saints bounty scandal emerged evidence that Williams had done the same thing at multiple prior stops in his career.)<
In the aftermath of Russini's resignation, Vrabel continues to avoid scrutiny.
sports.yahoo.com
