15 weeks is fine by me, but calm down with the 'massive damage'. Bad stuff happens from time to time in all sports, you'll never stop moments of madness, doesn't matter what the rules are. I won't start listing them in RU, NRL, Soccer, etc., plenty others have. It's how you deal with it, and the sport's dealt with it just fine so far, and I'm confident they'll continue to do so. Let the 'knives come out' if they must - at least we get a platform to talk about and defend the sport, which plenty RL people have done so eloquently already. The fact that the RL community, Wigan included, has come out and made it absolutely clear that this is totally unacceptable gives the message that this is an unusual incident.

#prayforben

You better believe the 'massive damage'. I have never known a rugby league video on YouTube have over 1 million hits in a couple of days and judging by peoples comments on there and across twitter, of course it has been detrimental to the image of the sport.

Not true, surely?

What do think the consequences of this 'massive' damage will be. 'Massive' fall in playing numbers? 'massive' fall in crowds? 'massive' fall in TV viewers? Something else?

Agree. One YouTube video had 1.3 million views and another is closing in on the million mark. It was the second news item on the news here on Sunday night and I'm on the other side of the world. People who don't even follow league were talking about it at work today. It's done massive damage.

Possibly the opposite of that. I remember when Aussie Rules first started appearing on TV over here. Me and all my mates would watch it just for all the fights, and there were loads, even though we were clueless on the rules. Now it turns out that ARL is crap so my interest soon faded but if this has a similar effect and people tune in to watch our sport then it looks like Ben Flower has done the game a massive favour and maybe a pay rise rather than a ban is in order. Agreed?

True apparently, along with 1 other who is not an ex player. Thought it was a strange choice personally.

For Wane or Flower

we dont know what this incident has dont to the image of rl and we wont for some time yet.
if we go off other sports then no damage at all will be done.
like i say these forums are full of lunatics at times like this

When you have a video of the head coach at the top level inciting his team to commit violent acts on the field, and you have a player committing a violent assault on a smaller player, I suspect that it will have an impact on the view of parents when choosing which sport to let their lads (and daughters) play. Its not as if we have a great volume of young lads playing the game, so we cant really afford to lose any more to other sports.

It will also have an impact on commercial income. If I was the CEO of 'Houses for Homes' I would be asking why someone wearing my company name and logo was seen committing a violent assault, and why that image has been projected around the world millions of times. Will that kind of publicity encourage other businesses to be associated with the sport?