With Uruguay now eliminated from the 2014 World Cup, it is hard to deny that Luis Suarez's absence contributed to the departure of the team from the tournament.

It's simple math, when Suarez was in the starting lineup, Uruguay won their games. When he was absent from the starting 11, the squad lost -- including a stunning 3-1 defeat at the hands of Costa Rica and their Group of 16 game against Colombia.

Suarez, who was the English Premier League's Player of the Year, putting 31 goals and 12 assists for Liverpool, was Man of the Match against England scoring both goals in Uruguay's 2-1. Oddly enough, Suarez's bite helped set up Los Charrúas' lone goal in their match against Italy, with Italy clearly flustered after the non-call for the teeth marks Suarez left on Giorgio Chiellini's shoulder, allowing Diego Godin to score the header a couple of minutes later.

What makes Suarez's actions even more confusing is that Uruguay was playing with a man advantage after Claudio Marchisio was sent off with a red card in the 59th minute of the match, with plenty of time left to score on a vulnerable Italian squad.

Despite his all-world talent, you have to wonder whether he is worth the headaches. This is now his third suspension for biting an opponent. The first suspension -- seven games -- came in 2010 when he played in the Netherlands Eredivisie league's club Ajax for biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal on the neck and was christened "The Cannibal of Ajax" by Dutch media. Ajax dumped Suarez on English Premier League (EPL) Liverpool FC while he served that ban. The second sanction came when in 2013, taking a chunk out of Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea, costing him 10 games this time around.

This time, FIFA laid the hammer on Suarez -- who is arguably a top three player in the world on par with the talents of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Neymar -- for the incident in Estádio das Dunas against Italy. FIFA ended Suarez's 2014 World Cup, banning him from nine international games on top four months of any soccer activity, including games with Liverpool -- with the 2014/2015 EPL season set to start on Aug. 16.

John W. Henry and Fenway Sports Group that owns Liverpool has been eerily silent about the best player on their Liverpool property eating such a groundbreaking sanction. Would John W. Henry have acted the same way if "Big Papi" David Ortiz took a bit at someone during the World Baseball Classic or even a Major League Baseball game?

One action that the Fenway Sports Group may take is just shed themselves of the Suarez headache much like Ajax did, dumping him on another team to just avoid even answering these question. La Liga's Barcelona has expressed interest Suarez, with the club hungry to make a splash this off-season.

And that's the truth: talent trumps even criminal assault in the business of sports. Suarez may end up not only richer when he comes off suspension, but so will Henry, Fenway Sports Group and Liverpool.

Liverpool spent a club-record £22.8 million ($38,821,560.00) to attain Suarez's services and is asking no less than £80 million ($136,231,600.00) in hopes of turning a profit and rebuilding with the likes of Adam Lallana of EPL team Southampton FC and Benfica winger Lazar Markovic of Portugal's Primeira Liga, after finishing second in the EPL standings to Manchester City.

La Liga's Barcelona may have no problem paying such a fee and have zero issues with the Suarez World Cup incident, with the club more concerned about long-term goals such as keeping up with current Spain champions Atletico Madrid, bitter rival Real Madrid, powerhouses like Bundesliga's Bayern Munich, and teams revamping such as EPL's Manchester United. New Barca head coach Luis Enrique has compared Suarez's incident to former Barcelona forward Hristo Stoichkov of Bulgaria, who once got suspended two months for stomping on a referee's foot in 1990 while playing for the Catalan club.

Weirdly enough, many have come out in support of Suarez despite his penchant to gnaw on opponents. Uruguay President Jose Mujica suggested, in a television interview with former Argentina legend Diego Armando Maradona, that Suarez's ban was retaliation for Uruguay knocking out Italy and England out of the World Cup. Even Chiellini suggested on his Web site that the punishment did not fit the "crime" and that he took no joy in the sanctions against Suarez and felt no anger or a need for revenge.

Suarez was defiant at first, saying "these things happen," but has apologized for the incident as of Monday, via Twitter -- in both in Spanish and English. But has he learned his lesson? When he played in the Dutch Eredivisie, Suarez apologized via Facebook before being transfered to Liverpool -- complete with a pay raise as well as fresh start on a new team and new league. History seems to be repeating itself for talented recidivist biter -- right down to a new team a pay raise as well as fresh start on a new team and new league -- showing, once again, that talented players will always get a second, third and sometimes fourth chances if they can bring their teams success.

Suarez's punishment certainly fits the crime but whether he has actually learned his lesson -- especially with increases in his salary being bestowed upon him after each incident as clubs scramble to shed themselves of the polarizing superstar at a profit -- remains to be seen.

LUIS SUAREZ'S TWITTER APOLOGY (ENGLISH)

LUIS SUAREZ'S TWITTER APOLOGY (SPANISH)

Giorgio Chiellini Tweets in Support of Luis Suarez