But that just mimics the leagues. The NFL treats it like a slap on the wrist, while MLB uses it as a means of punishing their players. The NFL also wants their stars to be popular and their brand/product to be popular and they have no problem sharing a fixed amount of revenue with their players so they have minimal labor unrest and minimal PR battles where they have to bash the players. MLB wants to push every dime into the owners pockets, makes the players out to be villains and the ones trying to destroy the game every CBA renewal (basically every 5 years they attack their own product) then they wonder why they have a general malaise problem and apathy from anyone under 40. MLB announces another suspension of extreme length to emphasize the players are ruining the integrity of the game, but the owners are there to protect it, so it makes the news, NFL slaps someone on the wrist and yawn. The whole playoff ban in MLB is just stupid because it punishes the team as much as the player. If they don't want the player to get additional "pay" then allow them to play, but suspend their postseason paycheck or donate it to drug addiction prevention, but that would make sense and MLB runs away from common sense.