The NFL, NBC chose to ignore Aaron Donald’s dirty behavior

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How much wood can a woodchuck ignore if a woodchuck can ignore wood?

Glad you asked.

The question on the minds of many fans-I count at least two of them, given my psychological state of late-immediately after Rams superstar defensive lineman Aaron Donald was flagged for trying to strangle a Cardinals opponent in their playoff game two Monday night ago, was simple but significant:

Will Donald be suspended for Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers?

After all, he was fined $ 10,300 for trying to strangle Packers offensive lineman Luke Patrick on Week 12. (Imagine the QB trying to call an audible without a trachea.) And he had more than that some previously punished stages of not playing well with others.

For the added element, Donald wears the “Stop Hate” message issued by Roger Goodell on the back of his helmet. That definitely added some show to say.

So it’s only a matter of time before the NFL – even with the pandering, gutless, selectively blind Goodell at the wheel – will announce its penalties against Donald.

But the week passed without a word. Certainly, Sunday, in its 1-hour-long, 10-contributor Rams-Bucs pregame, NBC will address it, giving us the latest.

Aaron Donald grabs DJ Humphries throat as the Rams-Cardinals.ESPN

But not a word. We heard, near the top, that Donald would be a major factor because of his greatness. Then, in a pandering, holy “interview” with Mike Tirico, Donald was told that he was a very special player. Even if he might just be dirty. His distinctive “Post-Play Strangler” instincts never came out.

However, there was time to include – surprise! surprise! -a friendly chat with the latest TV in a series of false supposed favorites, Odell Beckham Jr.

Then in the game. And more, “Gee, that Aaron Donald is great” stuff, this time from Cris Collinsworth.

Just late Saturday afternoon, a day before Donald played against the Bucs, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tweeted that Donald was only fined $ 500 more-$ 10,800-for his second attack of a live in the esophagus.

That almost closed news came five days after Donald’s latest oxygen -blocked episode, as if the NFL didn’t want anyone to know.

Aaron Donald has a history of dirty plays. Getty Images

So, what would and should be near the top of NBC’s pregame show list “To Do” in service to viewers, was completely ignored. Suspension? Goodell’s NFL and TV partner NBC seem to prefer that you forget the whole thing.

Oh, and Stop the Hate.

Fox team burning in the Tundra thriller

Fox’s 49ers-Packers on Saturday were full of solid information, right down to the last curtain.

Before the first game from scrimmage, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman made it clear that this game would be determined by special teams – and that was preparing a problem for Green Bay.

Gin! A blocked field goal and a blocked punt later, the Niners were upset winners.

Joe Buck (left) and Troy Aikman (right) correctly predicted the Packers-49ers game.FOX

For the final game – a winning field goal by Robbie Gould – Buck and Aikman quickly noticed that in arctic conditions, holder Mitch Wishnowsky pulled down a high snap and perfectly held it down. Good catch of three.

Forgive the Interpretation: Still can’t decide if the weekend games were made for good, exciting, comeback football-as we were told-or bad football made exciting by “preventing defenses ”along with other failures in strategic coaching.

Apparently all NFL players should meet NBC’s Cris Collinsworth approval, as in, “I really like” this person, and “I really admire” that person. Is he listening to himself?

Want to vote Barry Bonds in the Hall of Fame? Knock yourself out. Just explain three things:

1) How did he reach 317 home runs between the ages of 35 and 42?

2) Why did his head grow to the size of a beach ball and then drop to normal size after he retired?

3) How many clean players have been deprived of MLB careers by drug fraudsters?

Reader Steve Arendash briefly takes the Bud Selig/Donald Fehr drug season with this: Sammy Sosa is the only player to have three 60-home run seasons. However, he did not lead the league in any of those seasons.

Barry Bonds was not elected to the Hall of Fame in his 10th and final year on the Writers ’Ballot. Getty Images

Voting for PED cheats, and those that are logically perceived as cheats, seems like a highly rationalized decision to reduce the Hall of Fame to irrelevant, if not shameful.

And I won’t trust David Ortiz as much as I can.

CBS’s James Lofton is the Jim Spanarkel of football analysts. Or is Spanarkel the? Yet, both are unusable and unappreciated by callers for speaking appropriate common sense.

James LoftonDiamond Images/Getty Images

Working with the Niners-Packers for Westwood One Radio, Lofton said that whenever a player performs one of these post-play, self-promoting demonstrations, he eats into the game clock before the next game, which puts his team at unnecessary risk.

Was he allowed to say that?

Whenever the Buccaneers play on TV here this season, we are told that their defensive coordinator, Todd Bowles, is fully qualified to be head coach.

But we’ve seen him as the Jets ’head coach for four seasons, and he’s often lost and confused, especially during the crunch in clock management.

Dan Fouts, with CBS at the time, said Bowles’ decisions and skepticism left him “stunned.”

It’s hard to imagine if the Knicks have a talent deficiency or a team deficiency. There is no visible plan, a strategy. Each game is like a spin of a wheel, a collection of drifters, alone put together, lots of 3-point shots thrown.

Odell is up front about ‘Me U.’

Naturally, Odell Beckham Jr. had to. to take advantage of his starting lineup in face/time to try to steal the spotlight by acting like a jerk. He referred to his college as “Him University.” Although he may have joined “Me U.”

He wouldn’t say LSU, because his college expelled him for notably handing out money to players after a national championship game-the same game after which he dropped the locker-room festival, stealing the scene from those played by acting an attention-addicted jerk.

Naturally, NBC gave him a look-away pass. Its pregame has already determined for us that we all love her.

Tennis fans are angry at ESPN. again. The network almost ignored the superb and surprising singles and doubles play of American Danielle Collins at the Australian Open.

Reader Peter Wunsch: “Did ESPN know it had an American player that they could show to an American audience? Or did they know nothing?”

ESPN ignored Danielle Collins ’victory at the Australian Open. ZUMA24.com

ESPN aired several overnight battles with the tape delay, but Collins ignored it.

But that’s basically ESPN. It doesn’t care about good stories, the likes and needs of the particular audiences it invites, or the sports it buys. It cares about big names, and only big names – for good or bad reasons. Did it take Alex Rodriguez to be ESPN’s voice and face of MLB for anything better?

Suckers Alert: Add Shaq O’Neal to the cast of celebs and athletes who have been paid to hustle the public into losing their money on sports gambling. Another O’Neal who would otherwise be hungry.

Clark Gillies is easy to root-on and off the ice. The sign of the man. As a player, he visited a disabled young man at a Long Island rehab center, then got in touch. A mensch.

*Whenever the USOC or IOC warns competitors on how to avoid government “operatives” in their midst-visible and invisible-I ask why and how China was given approval to host of this Winter Olympics. Did Nike and LeBron James have anything to do with it?

Reader Mark Dantonio on the unintentional overuse and misuse of replay rules: “For decades, now, the meaning of ‘Fixing it’ is no longer fun.”

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