I'm not talking about his current state of mind... I'm talking about his state of mind if a punishment like Crawley suggested is handed down by the NRL.
Thinking more about players that took their own lives when they didn't get a gig after Toyota Cup.
It's an extreme example, but it exists and has happened when a young person's life is flipped upside down.
It could be considered that the NRL actively put these people in the spotlight, because it is beneficial to them to have stars of the game prominent in media, etc. hence requirements for mandatory media commitments, etc. therefore they have some responsibility to them.
Cutting Ezra entirely from the NRL until 2029 (as Crawley suggests), pretty much kills his career and cuts him off from support networks that NRL have available to them... going down that line would be a very high risk to the NRL, given they are aware of the consequences that can occur when you flip a young person's life like that.
Removing Ezra from the NRL doesnt automatically disassociate his name from the NRL... whatever he would do moving forward would be as "former NRL star" and that is a risk to the NRL.