09-17-2015, 02:21 PM
(09-17-2015, 01:58 PM)Penn Wrote: .
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As already stated by others, that was 5 years ago. Don't forget, this year a crack-down point in the NFL is fights. The $25K minimum was implemented this year. If you go back to fights in 2010 the fines were usually much less then $25K so that was a very stiff penalty at that time.
With the new rules around fights, in actuality multiple players could have been fined on both teams for either not leaving or entering the area of a fight. Fortunately they weren't since that would have been over-reach but the way the rule is written, they could have been.
They were fined the league minimum for fighting that season. This year's minimum for a first offense with fighting is just over $28000. Regardless if they are "stricter" what is the justification for the additional $7k? If it's just to lay down the law and scare other players from doing the same (which won't work because emotions fly high in a physical sport), will everyone who gets into a scuffle and not get ejected have to pay $7k more than the league minimum which the league set itself? is $35k the new minimum even though ~$28000 is already set in the fine schedule?
And the fines for entering a fighting area have been in the league for a while. How heavily enforced? Not sure, but no other players are getting fined from being within the vacinity of this specific incident. So it sounds like the league says one thing but does another in terms of fighting. If they wanted to make a statement to the league to cut down fighting, they could have ejected him or suspended him.
Sounds like isolated punishment for one specific player. unless the league hands out other $35k fines for first time offenses with fighting in-game but not being ejected, then this is unfair.
