All Things Sports

Hello guys, welcome back to All Things Sports! This week is Thanksgiving and one of the traditions that has become a staple of Thanksgiving is watching football. Now, I don’t normally need an excuse to watch more sports, but I enjoy watching the Thanksgiving games just as much as anybody else. 

Currently we are in the midst of one the craziest seasons in recent memory and my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, is 6-4 despite having a horrendous offense. However, one of the few bright spots of that offense(and my fantasy team) has been running back Jaylen Warren, who has had a quietly good season. Jaylen Warren’s solid production has not been the main headline surrounding him however, because the main headline surrounding him has been the fines he has received for plays that appear to be clean in the game. For someone who is set to make just under 900,000 dollars this year, one of the smaller contracts in the league, he has been fined almost 100,000 dollars for 2 hits that were ruled entirely legal in the game. One of those hits was the 5 foot 8 Warren simply blocking against 6 foot 4 Los Angeles Rams defensive lineman Michael Hoecht in the only way he could. While he was leading with his head, which is typically not the safest approach and is what got him fined, Warren could not have blocked any other way due to the size discrepancy. I must remind you that this was LEGAL and there were no flags on the play. Yet, he was still fined nearly 50,000 dollars for that block alone. A block filled with his trademark toughness and tenacity that won him a spot on the team in the first place. This is not an isolated case either. While Jaylen Warren’s may be the most well-known because of the situation and legality of the hits, there are many other cases. While some are actually illegal hits that endanger the safety of the players reminiscent of prime Vontez Burfict, others are very much not like this. The best way of looking at this is using the example of the Buffalo Bills. In Week 4, star defensive lineman Ed Oliver was fined twice for over 13,000 dollars because of two unpenalized plays related to celebrations. The most important part here is unpenalized. In Week 5, defensive end AJ Epenesa was fined over 20,000 dollars for sacking Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawerence. His foot had gotten stuck in the turf resulting in an awkward fall, but the play was not penalized. Yet another legal play that was fined. There are so many more examples of this, all where legal plays that are meant to be a part of the game are getting fined. So why is the NFL doing this? 

Well the best answer here is the NFL’s focus on player-safety and stopping things they view as “highly-offensive”. However, let’s deconstruct both arguments and show just how absurd the NFL is being. First with player safety. I am NOT against protecting players. This is a dangerous game and it’s played best when everybody is healthy, but there has to be a balance between safety in an inherently dangerous game and letting the game play out. These players know what they are getting into each and every week, and at some point, a line has to be drawn between accepting those risks and protecting players. For example let’s look at Tua Tagovailoa, who had a horrific series of concussions leading to him almost being paralyzed at one point in the season. Tua needs to be protected from that level of injury, no doubt about it. However, that doesn’t mean players shouldn’t be able to sack him lest they face a fine from the NFL. Although that’s not the case right now it seems as if that is the direction the NFL is heading in. The line has to be drawn to create a game where players are safe, but also where they can fully play and enjoy the game they love. Now, let’s deconstruct the “highly-offensive” point. Now again, there are most definitely times where celebrations and gestures can become too obscene for a sport that little kids watch every weekend. However, there’s celebrations such as Antonio Brown twerking(which is crossing the line in my opinion) and there’s celebrations such as Miami Dolphins superstar wide receiver Tyreek Hill taking a fan’s phone and recording himself doing a backflip on it. He did return the phone to the fan of course and created one of the most insane celebrations I have seen recently. Were both of these players fined for their respective celebrations? Yes. Again, there is preventing offensive and obscene content and then there’s not letting players have fun. At the end of the day this is entertainment and this is a GAME. Games are where people are supposed to have fun. The NFL needs to do a better job of letting the game be fun and flowing whilst balancing protection of fans and players alike. 

This should come as no surprise as the NFL is notoriously bad at judging punishments. This is the same league that gave receiver Calvin Ridley a 1 year ban for gambling on team premises and Deshaun Watson an 11 game ban for his dealings in massage parlors(a story for another time). Yes both are bad, but one is something that can be solved through rehabilitation or other programs while the other is literally being a predator(allegedly).

Overall the NFL needs to do a better job in terms of adjudicating punishments to capitalize on the massive market and fan interest that they already have. It is their job to create a better on-field product as well and this is where they can improve by a large margin.