J.J. Watt Rips NFL's 'Annoying' Unnecessary Roughness Fines: 'It Is Out of Control'

Former NFL superstar J.J. Watt has staunchly defended players in the wake of the league levying a host of fines on players for unnecessary roughness penalties on seemingly innocuous football plays, and he continued that stance when asked about it on his most recent Pat McAfee Show appearance.

"I'm just sick of it," Watt said in part.

Watt said he believes some fines have been legit and that he understands why the league is trying to get certain things out of the game in the name of player safety.

However, he believes things have gone too far.

"But what's happening now. These plays that we're fining guys for, and we're taking tens of thousands of dollars out of their pockets because of routine football plays—things that happen throughout the game. It is mind-blowing to me."

He also added: "When you have to run the play back 10 times to figure out which guy even got fined, like what are we doing here, man?"

Watt has brought the topic up on social media multiple times.

First, he defended Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jaylen Warren, and then he backed Baltimore Ravens fullback Patrick Ricard:

NFLPA President J.C. Tretter recently penned an article explaining that players are concerned about excessive fines and an "overly punitive" system."

"Our members are voicing their concerns both privately and publicly that the NFL is excessively fining players. Furthermore, the league has control of the points of emphasis and their enforcement. By simply creating a new point of emphasis, the NFL can rack up hundreds of escalating fines on players. This is an approach that does not make sense and is leading to money coming out of players' pockets for things that, often, they are being coached to execute. In short, players feel this has become less about player safety and more about being overly punitive."

According to the NFL Football Operations website, a total of 236 plays (1.26 percent) out of 18,745 have resulted in fines through the first eight weeks (Week 9's total has not been posted as of Wednesday evening). All players have a right to an appeal those decisions. The number of appeals (and successful appeals) for the 2023 season has not been made public.

Per Tretter, the NFL issued 460 fines in 2022. He added that "100 of those fines were rescinded entirely by the hearing officer(s)" and "approximately 150 were reduced upon appeal."