Falcons defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux has received a year of probation from a Gwinnett County court for his marijuana possession charge incurred in what feels like 1973 by now. Seriously, this case took forever. He pled no contest and expressed contrition and embarrassment, according to his agent.
The big question, at this point, is how many games Babineaux will miss due to suspension. League commissioner Roger Gooddell's eager banhammer famously yearns for blood tainted by the sticky icky.
Losing its best defender for only the season opener against the Steelers looks to be the team's best-case scenario. But Rog could read a pattern of bad behavior into Babineaux's recent history and thus boss all over Atlanta's plans, suspending Babineaux for two or more games. If Rog really wanted to. The tackle has been in trouble before, and this is the second time in his NFL career Battleship has avoided serious legal trouble. In 2007 he was accused by law man of killing a pit bull, several months before Michael Vick popularized the trend. However, it was later discovered the dog was a huge David Cronenberg fan and Babineaux only harmed it to prevent it from attacking his five-year-old. So you'd hope that incident wouldn't have any sway over Gooddell's decision.
The Falcons had what some would describe as a rough decade, as far as legal issues are concerned. Hopefully the closing of this chapter can signal the end of all that. Turn to The Falcoholic for more.