The NFL: Fines & Fusses

By now, everyone has probably heard of Justin Tuck’s sack on Brooks Bollinger, which he endured a $7,500 fine due to a roughing the passer penalty. The fine was voided after a few days in the end.

Roger Goodell stated the he was unable to see the play when it happened, and when he did, he immediately told Ray Anderson, who handles the NFL's discipline violations that Justin Tuck's fine was "too harsh".

Although it’s understandable for the NFL to have a mindset of safety-first, the penalty should have never been called in the first place, especially on a clean tackle like Justin Tuck’s.

A fine that has not had much buzz involved safety Ryan Clark of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  Ryan Clark wore a No. 21 sticker on his helmet in honor of former Washington Redskins’ free safety Sean Taylor (1983-2007).

Ryan Clark was fined $5,000 because his mourning was not apart of the agreement in the NFL rule book which states “no personal interests” involved with team uniforms.

Situations like these are ridiculous and make the NFL look like they have no compassion for their fallen players. Roger Goodell was reported to say in a Dan Steinberg report that “We (The NFL) mourn collectively, personal messages aren’t allowed” and that the 2007 season was “the NFL’s collective mourning period for Sean Taylor.”

The league is also looking to fine and suspend players who took a diuretic called “StarCaps." Although this isn’t news to most sports fans, this is a case were the supplement was not on a list of banned products given to the NFL players in the league.

StarCaps host an active ingredient called Bumetanide (bu.met.a.nide.) that the NFL considers a masking agent for steroids.

I personally believe that the players who took this supplement did not know about the active ingredient. The supplement was clearly not listed as a banned product, and I think the NFL should assess a small fine to the individual players, but not suspend players due to a faulty listing they could not control.

Another incident involved the Vikings RB Adrian Peterson. A.P. scored a touchdown, took off his helmet, and revealed a white skull cap this past weekend. The rules state that players must wear black skull caps during game day.

He was fined $5,000 for wearing a white skull cap in last week’s game against the Packers.

How ridiculous is that? A player won’t get penalized for taking his helmet off while he is not in the restricted bench area (which A.P. did about four times during that game), but he will get fined for wearing a white skull cap?

Titans RB Chris Johnson was also fined $10,000 for unsportsmanlike conduct due to him playing the bongos in the Chief’s band during a celebration and was quoted to say:

“I knew I was going to get a fine, but I am totally upset about how much. I am going to appeal. There’s no fun in this league. I was trying to have fun and they want to penalize us for having fun.” – Chris Johnson

The NFL is definitely going down a slum road when it comes to that “extra” something the players want to bring to the field on game day. 

Players are getting fined for entertaining the fans and having fun on a regular basis now week in and week out due to the leagues ridiculous policies.  At this rate, it seems like the NFL will have taken the entertainment value out of the game by the 2011 season.