Mike Smith: Can You Blame Him?

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In the past 24 hours, the NFL has dished out a plethora of fines to players on the Atlanta Falcons and the Washington Redskins. Falcons head coach Mike Smith was also fined for "instigating" an altercation with Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall.

If you didn't see the highlight of this game here's how it went down.

Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan scrambled out of the pocket and was running out of bounds.

As he stepped out, Washington's LaRon Landry whacked Ryan, causing Ryan and Smith to fall to the ground. Smith got up and confronted Hall, who came over to the sideline almost immediately, and it appeared as if neither liked the words the other was saying.

The current debate revolves around why Hall wasn't fined by the NFL and Smith was. Rather than enter that debate I will start another: Was Mike Smith right in his actions?

For those of you who have siblings, whether older or younger, you can understand this next point. Would you feel anger towards somebody who acted toward your brother or sister in a malicious manner?

Smith was obviously heated about Landry hitting his quarterback after he stepped out of bounds and he acted in a way that any human being would. Rather than back out of the picture, he decided to fight fire with fire.

Smith and Hall met quickly in the middle of a slew of players, and if Smith had it his way he would have made it an old fashioned backyard whoopin'.

The NFL responded by pinning a fine of $15,000 on Smith. Clearly, the NFL thinks that a person that holds the position of head coach should act in a more mature manner.

Here's where I differ from the NFL. If the fans or players weren't sold on Smith, they are now. This action will exponentially affect the locker room. It will exponentially affect the atmosphere in the stadium.

The players will use this to fuel their fire as they try to continue to win and stay in the playoff race.

So while the media and the NFL look at this issue as a negative, we will see how the players respond to it when the Falcons travel to North Carolina to take on the Panthers this Sunday.

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