March 30--Cleveland Browns General Manager Ray Farmer will be suspended the first four games next season for texting team personnel on the sideline from the press box during games last year, the NFL announced Monday.
According to NFL executive Troy Vincent, there's no evidence that team executives or ownership knew about Farmer's text and the team now has new procedures in place to prevent something like this from happening again.
Farmer had already admitted to and apologized for the violation of the league's electronic device policy.
"I take full responsibility for myself and my actions," Farmer said during the NFL scouting combine in February. "The things that I've learned from that is that ... there is a platform to have those conversations and have those things talked about and discussed. I misplayed that platform."
The Browns also have been fined $250,000 for the violation but will not lose any draft picks.
Some people -- like, maybe, Atlanta Falcons fans -- might think the Browns actually dodged a bullet on this one. The Falcons are expected to lose a draft pick as part of the penalty for piping in artificial crowd noise during home games over the past two seasons.
