NFL Players Association president Eric Winston has become the latest person to speak out against the league's discipline system for team owners.

The NFL and commissioner Roger Goodell were accused of being hypocrites by Washington Redskins safety Ryan Clark earlier this week after Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was allowed to pitch for the 2018 Super Bowl despite recent legal troubles.

Clark argued that players and owners were treated differently by the league, but Winston does not believe that the comparison is fair as, in his view, owners should set a higher standard than their players.

"I don't understand why the discipline for an owner of one of these 32 teams that hold the shield of the league is compared to a 22-year-old kid. That's what I don't understand, is why are we trying to compare?" Winston told Pro Football Talk.

"To me, there should be a much higher standard for an owner, there should be no doubt because I think he represents that team, and that's what we've always said about the shield, right? To me it's not an apples-to-apples situation, it's a situation where we have an owner who has unfortunately gotten into some trouble, and I don't understand why we're trying to compare it to... a player.

"This guy is an owner of a National Football League team, and to me that should mean so much more and in a way that he should be held to a much higher standard. And that's just my opinion of this situation."

Irsay has been charged with two misdemeanours following his driving arrest earlier this year.