“Character” has always been one of the buzzwords in frequent use at NFL draft time, but most teams paid little more than lip service to the idea of drafting high-character individuals.

Certainly, character questions have caused many a player to slip in the draft — and get drafted nonetheless. But with two harsh suspensions, the NFL’s new commissioner, Roger Goodell, has signaled that the league’s 32 teams may have to take a harder look at exactly whom they put into uniform.

Certainly the Tennessee Titans, who will be without the services of one of the game’s elite cornerbacks, Adam “Pacman” Jones, for the entire 2007 season, and the Bengals, who will lose promising wide receiver Chris Henry for the first half of the campaign, will have second, third, and fourth thoughts before turning in a draft card bearing the name of a player with red flags in the character column.

Last week, Pro Football Weekly reported — citing anonymous sources — that three top prospects for this year’s draft admitted to marijuana use during interviews with teams at the NFL scouting combine. If true, the admissions present an immediate test of how the NFL’s teams will approach character issues in the Goodell era.

Will teams shy away from these players — a group that includes the possible first-overall selection, Georgia Tech receiver Calvin Johnson? Because the three players in the Pro Football Weekly report passed their combined drug tests, they won’t be placed into stage one of the NFL’s substance abuse program — lessening the risk of drafting them unless the teams believe that the marijuana use was more than the experimental variety. Few observers feel that any of the three players (the two others are Clemson defensive end Gaines Adams and Louisville defensive tackle Amobi Okoye) will slip much in the draft, if at all.

Last April, several noteworthy talents fell deep into the draft after character issues came to light. Among the unlucky class was a pair of USC players, offensive tackle Winston Justice (two prior arrests and a one-year suspension from the school) and running back LenDale White (questions about work ethic and attitude after he showed up out of shape and injured at his pre-draft workouts). LSU defensive tackle Claude Wroten also saw past indiscretions come back to haunt his draft status, as an off-season arrest on drug charges and a failed drug test at the NFL Scouting Combine sent the first-round talent plummeting into round three.

NFL teams would love nothing more than to have you believe that character matters to them. But these draft-day slides weren’t about character; they were about money. Character issues rarely preclude players from having a chance to play in the NFL, or even become stars.

What character issues do to players who slip in the draft is prevent them from cashing in until they prove they can stay out of trouble. NFL teams have no issues with putting players of questionable character onto the field; they just don’t want to take risks with the owner’s checkbook in the process. So a player like Wroten, whose talent could have earned him a $10 million-plus guarantee had he been selected in the upper reaches of the first round, instead got the minimal signing bonus of a third-rounder. Further indiscretions would allow the St. Louis Rams to wash their hands of Wroten without significant salary-cap implications.

Perhaps no player in recent memory has gone under the character microscope more than former Ohio State tailback Maurice Clarett, who was suspended by the school for his entire sophomore season in 2003 and then unsuccessfully sued the NFL to gain entry into the 2004 draft lottery. Finally eligible to be selected in 2005, he showed up out of shape to the combine, then ran a pedestrian 40-yard dash. Speculation was that he wouldn’t be drafted, but the Broncos, remembering that Clarett was a dominant back on a national championship team as a true freshman in 2002, took a flier on him with the final pick of the third round.

Widely criticized in the press for the selection, the Broncos nonetheless viewed Clarett as a value pick. The team signed him to an incentive-laden deal with little guaranteed money, even for a third-rounder, further insulating itself against his possible implosion. Clarett never made it out of training camp. He complained to coach Mike Shanahan about playing time, nursed a minor injury, and was rumored to have been seen drinking at the team facility. He has since seen his life spiral further into disarray and is serving a prison sentence for armed robbery. In short, the Broncos’ selection was an utter disaster.

But was it a bad gamble?

True, the Broncos wasted a third-round pick, but thirdround picks wash out all the time. Several of the players selected in the third round this coming Saturday are likely to be cut this summer with little fanfare. Because of the draft position and further restrictions on the contract, there were no salary-cap implications. Suppose Clarett had been able to straighten out his life and make an impact on the roster. The Broncos and Shanahan would have been hailed for their genius in giving Clarett a second chance. In the risk versus reward nature of the NFL, it’s a deal teams will make every time, just as the Rams did with Wroten in the third round last year and the Philadelphia Eagles and Tennessee Titans did with Justice and White, respectively, in the second round.

While coaching the Miami Dolphins in the late 1990s, Jimmy Johnson made the same bargain with several draft choices of questionable character. Multiple arrests for breaking and entering didn’t stop Johnson from spending a fifth-round choice on a onetime LSU running back named Cecil Collins, a player viewed as a first-round talent had he not had the baggage. When Collins committed the same offense early on in his Dolphins’ career, eventually getting sentenced to 15 years in prison, Johnson was castigated for the pick. But what had he really risked? A late-round choice versus the possibility Collins would have panned out? NFL writers and fans will forgive spotty character if a player produces. They’ll cheer for players with lengthy rap sheets if they help secure victories.

Not all players with character issues implode as Clarett and Collins did. In 1995 rumors of drug use sent defensive tackle Warren Sapp tumbling down draft boards. Sapp’s background included a failed marijuana test while at the University of Miami. Viewed as potentially a topthree pick, Sapp fell to Tampa Bay at no. 12. Although Sapp was never a particularly likable player off the field, with rumored rude treatment of fans and press alike, he has had no issues of drug use in the NFL, and he led a turnaround that saw the Buccaneers go from the worst franchise in professional sports to Super Bowl champions in a sevenyear stretch.

Perhaps the most noteworthy draft-day slide in recent years was that of receiver Randy Moss, a player whose dossier included stays at three colleges, legal issues involving marijuana and domestic violence, and breathtaking speed, size, and athletic ability. Moss was easily a top-five talent in the 1998 draft, but fell all the way to Minnesota with the 21st pick. His stay with the Vikings was a rocky one that included numerous indiscretions, ranging from his fake “mooning” of Packers fans to an arrest for shoving a traffic officer with his car. It also included Pro Bowls, playoff appearances, record-setting performances, and many, many thousands of “Moss 84” jerseys sold.

With the baggage adding up, Moss was traded to the Oakland Raiders before the 2005 season, but the Vikings likely have no regrets over their 1998 pick. In the bottom third of the first round, they were able to take a risk on a talented player without risking the bottom line in the form of a huge signing bonus.

In the economics of the NFL, the bottom line is about wins and losses. Win with some sketchy characters, you’ll be called a success. Fail with those same players, and you’ll be in line for plenty of criticism. And that’s unlikely to change no matter how many suspensions the new commissioner hands out.

Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.