by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–San Francisco 49ers star pass rusher Aldon Smith is scheduled to meet with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell regarding possible disciplinary action. The meeting could happen as soon as next week in New York. Goodell has made it a practice to meet with players before handing down any discipline and Smith will be no different as he will be answering a number of questions pertaining to his latest legal problems.

Smith was given an 11 days work release from Santa Clara County court regarding his September 2013 arrest for drunken driving, it was Smith’s second arrest since joining the NFL in 2011. The big issue that Goodell and Smith will be discussing is the gun charges against Smith. Each of those three charges will be reduced to misdemeanor charges from the original felony charges.

Smith had also sought substance abuse program help after a game in London in October last season the Commissioner was satisfied with Smith’s approach towards tackling the problem of substance abuse. The real kicker to Smith’s problems came when he was at the Los Angeles International Airport on an alledged bomb threat at the security screening area of the airport. The Los Angeles City Attorney refused to press charges. Smith is scheduled to meet LA city officals on July 30th to close the case.

On the gun possesion charges he could go to jail for awhile but Smith’s attorneys worked out some kind of a deal and Smith went on a work release prograam for 12 consecutive Mondays. It just so happens that the 49ers are off for 12 consecutive Mondays during the regular season and they play one Sunday night game so you have to come to the conclusion that there was some kind of deal made.

As far as his meeting with Goodell there is a chance that he could be suspended for a handful of games approximently for two to four games. There is always a chance that he could get zero games but Goodell has been going after players for bad behavior. The incident with TSA at LAX might be something that Goodell might take in serious consideration and can’t see letting Smith off the hook for that one.

Two games sounds about right but we’ll see, Goodell is expected to make that decision sometime before the 49ers first pre season game against Baltimore on August 7th. As far as Smith’s improvement the 49ers have to hope that Smith is making progress on his substance abuse problems. The team and the league wants to see him get better in the process. In football in situations like this some players get better and sometimes players don’t get better at all.

There have been a few players in football that have flamed out because of substance abuse problems and it might be alcohol and some players have been able to overcome that. The team plans to work with Smith and do anything to make him better. The team could insulate him and also Smith will face the consequences and he’s starting to face some of those consequences right now until he cleans up his act. So for now the 49ers will wait to see what the fate of Smith will be it’s in the hands of Goodell next week.

David Zizmor is covering 49ers football for http://www.sportsradioservice.com