Dear NFL: Please Explain Your Punishment Scale

Thanks to the Bears' dismal performance on Thursday night , I'm pretty sick of football right now, so I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

Over the past few days, the NFL has levied fines from incidents that happened in three separate games in Week Nine.  These were the Falcons-Redskins sideline brawl, the Chad Ochocinco attempt to bribe a referee, and two incidents in the Bears-Cardinals game—Jay Cutler's arguing with officials and Tommie Harris' punch to the head of a Cardinals player.

Of those four incidents, two involve violent confrontation, one involves a verbal argument, and one involves a joke involving a small prop, in this case a one dollar bill.  Which two do you think cost the offending player the most money?

Jay Cutler and Chad Ochocinco were each fined $20,000 for their infractions, while the highest fine in the Falcons-Redskins brawl was $15,000 (for a coach no less), and Tommie Harris was fined just $7,500. 

Commissioner Goodell, please explain to me in what universe that makes sense.

I've admired your tough stance on off the field behavior, but why doesn't the same logic apply to actions occurring on the field of play?  How is a clear joke/stunt performed by a WR more than two times worse than a punch to the head which resulted in an ejection?  Tommie Harris is the only one kicked out of the game for his infraction yet his fine is the least?  I just don't get it.

This article originally posted on Cubicle GM .