Can the NFL punish them?

So, here is the question I got from a friend of mine, and it kind of got me thinking.  "How do you think the NFL should handle this Pac-Man thing?"  By "Pac-Man thing", of course, he means Adam Jones' latest arrest.

Of course, Jones' history of arrests make him the poster child for the NFL players' penchant for acting outside the law, and he was on a publicly recognized short leash when he was reinstated.  So, that means that his career is over since he got arrested again right.......?

Well, maybe it should, by all fairness to the players who represent their league honorably and act as upstanding members of the community that so many of seem to forget that they are actually part of.  You know, that one that all their fans and customers live in to???  Yeah that one.  The problem with punishing him as a player is hat this summer, he was not a player.  He was not being paid, he was not a part of any group that had any contract that would make it beholden to the NFL.  So, can the NFL punish them? 

It's an interesting question, and I think that ETHICALLY, the league would have trouble doing it since they had broken ties with the players, forcing the temporary dis-bandment of the players' union.  However, MORALLY I think that the league would be perfectly justified in treating Pac-Man the same way that Maurice Clarett was treated.  Persona Non-Grata, whether it's official or not.

To be frank, there are a lot of guys who are talented enough to be playing professional sports who lost their chance because they couldn't act in such a way to preserve their opportunity to earn the kind of money that can set up a family for generations.  (Yah Yah, I know they all just blow the cash, but that's their own fault.)  The fact that Pac-Man made it through college before he imploded, rather than falling apart in High School should not make him any different than the players that every one of us knows who blew their shots.

Additionally, after this off-season, and example may not be the worst precedent to set for the players.  If you are going to have the opportunity that these guys are getting from playing this game, risks or not, it is not out of line to expect them respect the community they are living in.