The MLS Disciplinary Committee issued its weekly dose of supplemental justice on Friday, hitting LA Galaxy midfielder Nigel de Jong with a three-game ban for his challenge on Darlington Nagbe of the Portland Timbers. Portland's Ned Grabavoy, meanwhile, escaped with no ban at all for a studs-up tackle on Dallas' Carlos Gruezo.
Cue an outcry.
In order to mete out supplementary discipline in a particular case, the disciplinary committee must reach a unanimous verdict and the panel is comprised of five people: Three former players, a former coach and a former referee. The members' names are not made public.
"[It is] a jury of peers," MLS VP of Competition Jeff Agoos, who oversees the committee, told ESPN FC. "They have expertise in the field and they have played in the league and have knowledge of the league and so it is a very expert committee."
The job of the "DisCo" is thankless at the best of times and never more so than when there is a challenge that injures one of the league's high-profile players, such as a U.S. international like Nagbe.
There is a strong impulse to get into tit-for-tat mode and suspend the perpetrator for a period that at least approaches the amount of time that the victim will be sidelined.
Indeed, Peter Walton, the general manager of the Professional Referee Organization that oversees referee development in North America, indicated this was the case in an interview with ESPN FC on Thursday.
(It should be noted that Walton was speaking before De Jong's ban was confirmed and that he does not sit on the disciplinary committee.)
"In the past, retrospective action has been based on the consequences of that challenge, in terms of a broken leg, in terms of number of games missed," Walton said. "My understanding is that Nagbe has a sprained ankle, so de Jong may not be given the length of ban that many think he should get."
Agoos added that, since 2012, the only bans greater than three games have been when the result of the challenge was a season-ending injury.
The idea that the punishment should be based on the consequences of a challenge is troubling. Some would-be vicious challenges don't always find their intended target while other, more innocuous-looking ones can do immense damage.
(In this latter category, the tackle back in 2011 from then-Vancouver Whitecaps defender Jon Leathers that broke the ankle of reigning league MVP David Ferreira springs to mind.)
But there is also a need to right wrongs that occur on the field, especially when they result in injury and are missed -- at least in part -- by the referee. MLS has a well-deserved reputation for physicality and while tackles will always be part of the game, the league should do its utmost to protect its players.
Thus, the disciplinary committee has a difficult balancing act and, in suspending De Jong for two games in addition to the standard one-game ban, managed to achieve the right outcome.
De Jong's challenge was bad and, contrary to the protestations of LA manager Bruce Arena, it did cause an injury. Nagbe might not have been seriously hurt but he did have to leave the field and played no further part in the game. (Incidentally, he returned to training with Portland on Friday.)
If MLS is intent on doing what it can to minimize bad challenges, then a three-game suspension in this instance feels about right. Although De Jong has a well-chronicled history of dangerous tackles, that must be ignored and the Nagbe incident had to be assessed in isolation.
One troubling undertone to all this is the implication that punishment is dependent on the victim. Speaking to reporters on Thursday in Sacramento, MLS commissioner Don Garber seemed to indicate that some players were more deserving of protection than others.
"All of the postgame discipline that we do, in partnership with our [players'] union, is very, very specific to protect our players," he said. "And particularly our goal scorers and our star players, those ones that people pay to see."
There is no question those stars should be protected and it's natural that those players most on the ball are going to be on the receiving end of the bulk of fouls committed.
The list of players suffering the most fouls in the league is almost exclusively comprised of forwards and attacking midfielders, with Houston Dynamo full-back DaMarcus Beasley the only defender in the Top 10.
But reducing the number of bad challenges shouldn't be victim dependent; otherwise a lack of consistency creeps into the process and credibility is reduced as a whole. That is the biggest challenge faced by the disciplinary committee every week and, to its credit, it largely succeeds. Further, as Garber noted, it won't be out of work anytime soon.
"It's not the first time something like this has happened in our game, not just by Nigel, but by others, and it's just something that we all as a sport need to work to eliminate," he said. "But I'm sure we'll have this discussion again at some point soon about another player and another bad tackle."
As fate would have it, another incident occurred on Wednesday. Portland's Ned Grabavoy went in high on Carlos Gruezo of Dallas and ended up kicking him in the knee.
To be clear, the challenge looked sloppy and lacked the force and danger of De Jong's tackle and Gruezo was able to continue. But it was reckless nonetheless, and Grabavoy should have been punished with more than the yellow card he received.
Yet the disciplinary committee didn't oblige, due to that requirement of a unanimous verdict.
"The committee discussed this play for a good period of time and came out split over whether this was an unequivocal red card," said Agoos. "There were factors that we went through that the committee felt were supportive of the criteria that we are asked to look at, and others felt that there was not enough of those criteria met for it to be an unequivocal red card. Without being unanimous that it is an unequivocal red card, the second criteria [for supplemental discipline] didn't come into play."
That calls into question the committee's consistency but Agoos called that expectation "a red herring."
"If you are expecting consistency, then you are expecting two plays to have the exact same criteria and merit," he said. "In the time that I was on the DisCo, and now manage it, I've never seen two plays have the exact same criteria. I don't think you can be consistent because you can never have two plays that are the same."
That may be so but the frustration of fans will not be eased by the different outcomes from both incidents. As the book closes on De Jong and Grabavoy, the scrutiny on MLS and its "DisCo" will continue.