Football Rumblings

NFL Too Weak on Fines?

Posted on December 7, 2010 by James WNo Comments

Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson, and Tennessee Titan’s cornerback Cortland Finnegan were both fined $25,000 for their fight on, which resulted in their ejection from the game.

The fine itself was met with a lot of ire when put into the context of the fines that the NFL had already set forth this season. The NFL had begun to draw a hard line on the punishment laid out for helmet to helmet contact and was throwing out fines of over $50,000. Now, when there was a real fight the NFL had determined each player would get the NFL equivalent to a slap on the wrist.

Two weeks prior to the altercation in the Texans game was an incident where Raiders defensive lineman Richard Seymour punched Ben Roethlisberger in the face during a Raiders loss. Seymour was ejected for the game, but received a similar fine. This brings up the question of what the NFL feels about fighting in the game.

In Hockey, the major sport where fighting occurs the most, the NHL will penalize for fighting in game but rarely doles out any fines or suspensions after the fact. In truth, it appears that the NFL has accepted the same sort of philosophy. Perhaps they believe that allowing players to fight will keep them from being too aggressive between the whistles.

This is speculation of course as the NFL has not commented publicly on how they view fighting in games. However, one thing is true: these penalties are not much of a deterrent to fighting as the total fine dispensed to Andre Johnson was 0.2% of his annual salary. That’s equivalent to a 50 dollar fine for a person who makes $30,000 a year. It’s not much of a punishment for a millionaire. Let the fighting begin.