David Haugh in the Trib:</p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>A guy who leaves the scene of an accident as quickly as Briggs is charged with doing also leaves the impression he might be hiding from something, right? Maybe from a Breathalyzer, even though police found no evidence of alcohol use at the scene? "Now how do we get to that far?" Smith snapped, his voice rising. "We have a one-car accident and now alcohol is involved? I think that's stretching it a little bit to go that far." Perhaps only if you work for an NFL team trying to rationalize why one of its star players would act so recklessly with a potential Super Bowl season and a $20 million free-agent payday hanging in the balance. Yet Smith sounded more disappointed with reporters than with Briggs when addressing his decision not to take disciplinary measures against the linebacker. "Disciplined for what? A one-car accident? No," Smith said. "He hasn't broken any team rules as far as I know. There's no reason to. We're jumping pretty far to assume [things]." You don't need strong calves to make the leap to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell being interested in finding out more about Briggs' accident. Given the hard stance Goodell has taken on "conduct detrimental to the game," nobody can predict how he would react if an investigation ultimately reveals Briggs' judgment was worse than his driving. A league spokesman confirmed officials are aware of the crash.</div></p> Stronger calves than me, I guess, because that'd be drawing a line you can expect about half the league to regularly cross. </p>
