The Cleveland Browns terminated the contract of wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth, the team announced Monday. After a year-long suspension for killing a pedestrian while driving drunk, Stallworth was reinstated Sunday by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. Goodell said Friday he met with Stallworth about a month ago, and the receiver is “in a better place than he was.” Goodell said Stallworth recognized what he did wrong and has prepared himself to return to the NFL. Stallworth, 28, was charged with DUI manslaughter March 14 in an early morning accident that killed 59-year-old Mario Reyes, a Miami construction worker who was on his way home.

If it were up to me… and God willing some day it will be… I’d have Donte’ Stallworth in a Patriots uniform by the end of business today.  I know the Pats have long had a reputation as the NFL’s Halfway House.  The place where troubled guys go to get re-acclimated into decent society, but this isn’t that kind of situation at all.  When Stallworth first went to jail for the fatal accident, both El Pres and I wrote almost identical blogs saying this was one of those things that could’ve happened to anybody.  Which is why the call them “accidents.”  That tragic as it was, Stallworth owned up to it more than he legally needed to, and anyone who was getting up on a soapbox declaring that he got special treatment because he’s rich and famous has no idea what they were talking about.  Or worse, was just being sanctimonious.  If anything, the whole way Stallworth conducted himself speaks to his character.  But to speak to a more relevant point, the guy is exactly what this team was lacking this year.  A 3rd receiver who can not only stretch defenses and draw safeties away from Randy Moss, but more importantly knows the offense and can get open.  Because that’s what killed the Pats offense more than any other thing this year.  No one outside of Moss, Welker and Julian Edelman could get separation, find seams, sit under routes and get YAC.  Joey Galloway can still run out of the building (and believe me I was glad when he ran out and didn’t come back), but couldn’t get open.  Sam Aiken is a career special teamer for a reason.  Especially with Welker as the frontrunner for 2011 Comeback Player of the Year, Stallworth is the perfect fit.

And as a last point, Peter King had this little item back in ’07:

The text messages from free-agent wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth to his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, began enthusiastically on the first night of his visit to New England, after Patriots quarterback Tom Brady happened by Stallworth’s table at a Boston restaurant on March 5 to preach the team’s gospel. By the next day, as Stallworth was meeting in Foxborough with Pats officials, the texts to Rosenhaus revealed a man whose mind was made up. I want to be here. Let’s get it done. I don’t want to leave here without a contract.

I hope he still feels the same way.