Simmons' suspension has caused a social media firestorm. (Infographic courtesy of Strategic Public Relations Social Data Desk)

Another man is convicted of assaulting his girlfriend and threatening to kill her, and is only suspended because it would look bad for the league if he hadn’t been. 

A third man beats his 4-year-old son so badly that it causes bruises and cuts, and is also suspended only because it would look really bad if beating a child didn’t warrant a significant punishment. 

Wednesday, a fourth man was suspended three weeks because he shared his opinion, a very strong one at that, about how the commissioner handled the investigation of the elevator situation.

By now you can tell that the first three men mentioned were Ray Rice, Greg Hardy and Adrian Peterson, respectively. But the fourth man is not a football player. That man would be Bill Simmons. 

Yes, that Bill Simmons. The Boston Celtics homer who is the editor of the ESPN-extension website Grantland and is well known for his thousands-of-words articles and entertaining podcasts. 

He has been suspended three weeks by ESPN for his tirade about how NFL commissioner Roger Goodell handled the Ray Rice situation on his podcast “The B.S. Report”. 

ESPN handed down the suspension on Wednesday along with this statement.

"Every employee must be accountable to ESPN and those engaged in our editorial operations must also operate within ESPN's journalistic standards. Bill Simmons did not meet those obligations in a recent podcast, and as a result we have suspended him for three weeks."

The main point of this Bill Simmons fiasco should be that ESPN worked swiftly to give the punishment while the NFL continues to fumble every opportunity they get to act quickly. 

ESPN handed down the suspension in a timely manner, only 24 hours after the podcast was released. ESPN took the podcast down and showed that it takes matters like this seriously. The journalistic values of ESPN are important to its brand. 

The NFL, to not beat around the bush, should be ashamed when they see how ESPN handles punishments. 

The graph details the ascent of #freesimmons on Twitter. (Infographic courtesy of Strategic Public Relations Social Data Desk)

The NFL has their punishments outlined through their collective bargaining agreement, but still takes a long time in suspending a player. The league suspends on the basis that it will solely hurt their public persona and finances.

It is outrageous that Simmons’ rant got a longer suspension than Ray Rice’s actions in the elevator even if the NFL never saw the tape. Rice had told them what had occurred prior to the release of the elevator video and the league still didn’t think it was worthy of a lengthy suspension. 

The NFL looked bad when the initial two-game suspension was handed down, but looked even worse when it had to go back and try to explain why the league should have suspended him longer. It looked like the NFL didn’t care about the actions of Rice, only how it would make the league look. 

Even the suspensions of Hardy and Peterson were handled horribly because the players were prepared to play before it was decided that they would be suspended indefinitely. It had the feel of a PR move by the NFL because the backlash if those two had played would have been horrific. 

The excuse of “due process” and letting the litigation run its course before taking action is admirable, and conveys the “innocent until proven guilty” mindset that our country stands for. 

But there is no excuse for letting these players play while they wait for these lawsuits to play out. Sit them down for conduct detrimental to the league. Give an incentive for players to stay out of trouble. If players see that they will be punished for the simple fact that they are near trouble, then they may avoid it. 

The arrests and court dates hurt the NFL to the point where it is best to remove them while the process plays out instead of acting like it isn’t a big deal. Investigations need to be quicker and more thorough.

Rice, Peterson and Hardy harmed other people and were performing actions that have nothing to do with their job description as professional football players. 

ESPN and Simmons frequently trend together, but #freesimmons is taking over on social media. (Infographic courtesy of Strategic Public Relations Social Data Desk)

Simmons was actually doing his job and didn’t hurt anyone with his actions. It can be argued that Goodell’s reputation has taken such a hit during the last few months that Simmons’ words didn’t harm Goodell’s reputation any more than it already has; they only confirm the thoughts of many sports fans. 

But ESPN’s punishment of Simmons is not completely understandable. The length that it gave him compared to other recent suspensions of ESPN personalities shows that ESPN doesn’t always seem to get it right either. 

ESPN personality Stephen A. Smith recently made comments that were seen as out of line in regards to domestic violence and boom, he instantly had a week-long suspension. No investigation, no flip-flopping back and forth between suspension or no suspension. It was just instant reaction to actions ESPN felt didn’t fall in line with its company’s values. 

Now look at the two recent ESPN suspensions. Smith gets one week for comments insensitive to domestic violence victims and women in particular. Simmons gets three weeks for calling Roger Goodell a liar. 

The outcry over Smith’s comments was much louder and offended many more people. But Simmons received the longer suspension potentially due to the fact that ESPN has a $15.2 billion deal with the NFL. ESPN does not want to lose that deal and used this suspension to show the NFL that it will not stand for outrageous comments towards a business partner. 

But the point is that ESPN made both of these suspensions quickly. ESPN made the decisions regarding the suspensions within days of the act. 

The NFL takes months to hand down a suspension even though most of the league’s suspension lengths are already predetermined. They conduct “investigations” that really don’t investigate thoroughly, something that was made evident by the Rice scandal. 

So come on NFL, follow the lead of ESPN. They may not always get it right, but at least they handle the matter quickly instead of putting it off.