Is the NFL Going to Punish Chip Kelly Like it Did Jim Tressel?

The NCAA finally laid down the law on the Oregon Ducks Wednesday. Due to the recruiting violations committed under previous Head Coach Chip Kelly's watch the university is going to be on probation for three years, will lose a pair of scholarships, and will have the number of recruiting trips it can pay for reduced from 56 to 37 for each of the next three years.

As for the leader of the team, Philadelphia Eagles Head Coach Chip Kelly, there was a punishment laid down but it doesn't matter since he's in the NFL now. So should the NFL lay down the law on Kelly? After all, the league punished Jim Tressel for something he did in college...

When the Indianapolis Colts hired former Ohio State Head Coach Jim Tressel after he resigned the NFL said that was fine, but that he still had to serve a 6-game suspension in the NFL for what he did in college.

At the time the move was somewhat applauded. It is not right when a college coach is able to escape punishment for wrongdoing in college by accepting what is essentially a promotion into the NFL--and one that was partially earned due to their wrong doing.

So while it seemed unusual at the time suspended Tressel when he joined the Colts was seen more as justice than improper and overreaching.

The only problem is that a precedent was set. One coach was punished by the NFL for college misdeeds so shouldn't all of them?

If Goodell were to do so it would be kind of hard. In Tressel's case he had the punishment that the NCAA laid on him to refer to. In Kelly's case the NCAA essentially punted rather than actually lay a punishment on Kelly.

All they did was put an 18-month show cause order on him which means that if any college wants to hire him in the next 18-months they have to show why he shouldn't be punished.

Since he's in the NFL and will have to royally screw it up to be fired and looking for love in the college ranks again. So they punted to the NFL in hopes that the league runs the clock out.

It would definitely be murky waters if Goodell decided to go down that road since he would be the sole judge over something that didn't happen in the NFL, but with the relative ease that he levies fines it is doubtful that he would mind making the call.

But will he punish one of the hottest coaches in the NFL under circumstances like these? Tressel was just a consultant; someone who did not really matter to the day-to-day operation of the team.