Probably best to take this one with a grain of salt because it sounds like NFL insider John Clayton hasn’t paid a whole lot of attention to the situation. But in a weekly interview over on 93.7 The Fan, Clayton said he thinks the NFL will investigate Chase Claypool’s bar skirmish and believes a short suspension is possible from the league.
First, Clayton stated the obvious truth. It wasn’t a good look for Claypool. Not a good position he put himself in.
“When you go on TMZ and there’s a video, that’s not good,” Clayton told the show. “I don’t know if the police have done anything with it because I’ve been so busy writing about free agency.”
The police have yet to file any chargers in the fight, which took place among a large group of people outside a California bar on March 13th. The video was released by TMZ Wednesday morning. The Steelers nor the league have yet to comment on the matter.
But Clayton believes the NFL will soon look into the situation.
“A hundred percent [they’ll look into it]. I mean, it was a fight. It was an incident. It was pretty ugly because it was made public. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it. I mean, right now they’re probably busier with Deshaun Watson and his 15 lawsuits more than anything else. But they’ve got to look into it.”
And Clayton didn’t rule out the chances of the NFL handing down a short suspension for Claypool’s actions.
“A game, maybe two games at the most. I think that’d be about it. It’s not gonna be a long one. That’s for sure. And he’s not going to go on the exempt list or anything like that.”
Even with Clayton’s framing of a short suspension, it would be a tough way for a second-year player like Claypool to start off the season. How accurate is Clayton’s assessment? It’s hard to say. The NFL can be unpredictable yet heavy-handed about these things and if they believe Claypool kicked someone in the face (the video is a little hard to decipher), a suspension isn’t out of the question.
