The NFL has fined Andre Johnson and Cortland Finnegan both fined $25,000 for their on field fist fight Sunday as the Houston Texans took on the Tennessee Titans. There was speculation that Johnson could be suspended for the ugly incident, especially considering he was a repeat offender who had been fined before, but the NFL decided against taking the star player out of Thursday night game on NFL Network.
One has to wonder whether the fact that NFL airs the next Texans game played any factor in their decision to not suspend Johnson. The NFL had previously fined Richard Seymour the same amount for smacking Ben Roethlisberger in the helmet last week, but that would seem to be a far cry from two players ripping off one another’s helmets and having a fist fight… Plus, these two players have already been previously fined for on the field tussles with one another. Clearly those fines did nothing to deter them from not only repeating it, but upping the violence to a much greater level. So the NFL thinks that more fines are going to stop this from happening again?
This isn’t about Johnson playing against the Eagles. Let him appeal and be suspended for the following game, I don’t really care. I honestly don’t understand how the NFL doesn’t treat two players without helmets punching one another in the head more severely. Surely, that’s worse for the game than a defender who inadvertently making contact with an offensive players’ helmet or a pregame tweet… If a guy wears the wrong socks he’s hit with a $5,000 fine, but if he rips off a guy’s helmet and punches him in the face it’s only $25,000? Seems a little off to me.