Crimes and misdemeanors: Congratulations, Bobby Boswell - you’re this week’s winner

Credit to Bobby Boswell -- he seems to know what he did -- but wow was that stupid. The headbutt he put on Dimitry Imbongo wasn’t even that difficult to spot. As a result, Boswell saw red, wasn’t on the field for New England’s upset win in Houston, and of this afternoon, the move will cost him an extra game on the sideline.

The Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee handed down its ruling this afternoon, giving Boswell an addition one-game ban for his little launch into Ombongo. On top of the automatic suspension the Houston defender gets with the red card, the D.C.'s ruling means Boswell won’t be available until after June 1.

From MLS’s release:

Boswell was issued a red card for the offense, and the Committee unanimously determined that Boswell’s head butt was an egregious act that required further sanction. Thus, Boswell will serve a total suspension of two games – this Sunday at Sporting Kansas City and June 1 at the Columbus Crew.

For his part, Boswell has more problem with his actions than the punishment:

“It was a pretty dumb play on my part,” Boswell told MLSsoccer.com. “You do something stupid, you’re going to pay the price. If you put yourself in front of a Disciplinary Committee that usually means you’ve done something wrong and I’m not going to argue with that.”

Maybe I’m letting his play on the field cloud things a bit, but this one surprised me. Boswell is coming off the best year of his career and is somebody who seems to be a leader along the back. With Geoff Cameron’s sale and Andre Hainault losing time in the team (before moving on), Boswell was the one consistent presence along the back. Maybe he let the moment get to him, but this isn’t the type of reaction we’ve come to expect from him.

Boswell claims he was provoked, but it’s difficult to see how. Or, it’s difficult to see any provokation from this weekend’s game justifying that response.

“In hindsight I wish I would’ve handled it differently, but it’s one of those where, if you keep taking shots, at what point do you get fed up and put a stop to it? ... I look at it in terms of, you’ve got kids watching the game and it’s a bad example and it’s a bad role model. I learned my lesson … I hurt the team and that’s the worst thing about the whole thing.”