Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth has been suspended without pay for the entire 2009 season for violating the NFL's personal conduct policy and its substance abuse policy, the league announced Thursday.
Stallworth, 28, struck and killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol March 14 in Miami. He pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony June 16 and was suspended indefinitely by commissioner Roger Goodell two days later.
Stallworth was sentenced to 30 days in jail, two years of house arrest (for non-football related activities), eight years of probation and other restrictions.He reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the family of Mario Reyes, the 59-year-old construction worker who was killed.
Goodell didn’t think the punishment was enough.
"I believe that further consequences are necessary,” Goodell wrote in a letter to Stallworth, according to ESPN.com. “There is no question that your actions had tragic consequences to an innocent man and his family, and that you have violated both the Substances of Abuse and Personal Conduct Policies. In that respect, you are clearly guilty of conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the NFL.
“Your conduct endangered yourself and others, leading to the death of an innocent man. The NFL and NFL players must live with the stain that you have placed on their reputations.”
Stallworth will be reinstated by the league after the Super Bowl in February 2010.
