NEW YORK – Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donte' Stallworth was suspended without pay for this season Thursday after pleading guilty to DUI manslaughter in June. He cannot participate in any team activities until he is reinstated after the Super Bowl.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Stallworth placed a "stain" on the reputation of the league and all its players.
Stallworth, who played for Tennessee in college, struck and killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol March 14 in Miami. He pleaded guilty to the second-degree felony June 16 and was suspended indefinitely by Goodell two days later.
Stallworth was given a 30-day jail sentence and reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the family of Mario Reyes, a 59-year-old construction worker who was leaving his job as a crane operator.
In a letter to Stallworth released by the NFL, Goodell wrote that he didn't take into account the sentence in determining the 28-year-old player violated the league's substances of abuse and personal conduct policies.
"Your conduct endangered yourself and others, leading to the death of an innocent man," Goodell wrote. "The NFL and NFL players must live with the stain that you have placed on their reputations."
Police said Stallworth had spent the night drinking at a Miami Beach club and had a blood-alcohol level of .126, above Florida's .08 legal limit.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox