Judge Sue L. Robinson charged the NFL on Monday with overreacting to public sentiment in the handling of the Personal Conduct Policy. She was unaware that the government's entire policy was based on public opinion.

The regulation was put in place to allow the league to punish players and others who get into trouble when off the clock. Off-duty conduct is generally not a concern for employers. 

The public expects that action will be done against anyone who would waste the "luxury" of being affiliated with The Shield by getting into problems when not acting under its auspices; hence the NFL  made matters its priority.

However, the Personal Conduct Policy requires the league to strike a balance in terms of public relations. Acting in a circumstance like the Deshaun Watson case, where there has been extensive media attention, discussion, and scrutiny, is one thing. 

The league must decide between acting and turning a non-story into a story when someone gets into problems, but the media doesn't pick it up or leave sleeping dogs alone.

The way the NFL handled James Saxon, the running backs coach for the Arizona Cardinals, is the ideal illustration of this dynamic. According to news reports that surfaced for the first time on Friday, he was detained in May on suspicion of domestic violence.

 The league advised the Cardinals to put Saxon on paid administrative leave when the report surfaced.

This time, many people assumed that either Saxon or the Cardinals had kept the league in the dark about the problem. That is untrue; coach Kliff Kingsbury said to the media on Friday that the team was aware of the arrest and informed the league of it.

According to the team, the league did not suggest administrative leave until today, following the study's release.

The connotation is crystal clear. The company didn't want to fabricate a narrative around the Saxon arrest when there already wasn't one. Hey, where's Coach Saxon? Would have been a question if he had been put on administrative leave at the time. Nobody knew, so they waited on purpose.

 I accomplished this to avoid having to deal with a damaging report about a coach being accused of domestic assault.

The league's decision to wait until it is indispensable to act is somewhat hypocritical. Teams and employees who fail to disclose events right away will face punishment from the NFL. 

However, if such instances are otherwise unknown to the general public, the NFL reserves the right to keep them secret. The league will then take action after someone reports the matter, something it should have previously done but chose not to do because it preferred to keep the arrest a secret.