A league source tells us that Vikings left tackle Bryant McKinnie met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell on Friday.

The meeting presumably has occurred in connection with McKinnie’s pending criminal entanglement.  McKinnie faces multiple charges, including felony aggravated battery, arising from an incident in which McKinnie allegedly bashed a night club bouncer in the head with a pole.

There’s a chance that McKinnie will be entered into a diversion program at a June 20 hearing, which would defer prosecution (and ultimately dismiss the charges) if McKinnie meets certain conditions.  (Such as, for example, not bashing anyone else in the head with a pole.  Allegedly.)

Regardless of what the judge in Florida does to McKinnie, the judge, jury, and executioner on Park Avenue can do whatever he wants, given a Collective Bargaining Agreement that has provided Goodell with full and complete power to discipline players for off-field misconduct.  The fact that any appeal is handled by Goodell or his designee makes Goodell’s power to mete out punishment absolute.

Working against McKinnie is the fact that he already has been punished once for violation the Personal Conduct Policy, as a result of his guilty plea to disorderly conduct on the Love Boat.  In that case, McKinnie was fined a game check.  This  time around, he could be suspended, even before his criminal case is concluded.