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Status: Closed — this petition is no longer accepting signatures.

Treat all NFL players equally regarding fines

Treat all NFL players equally regarding fines

Closed — 63 supporters Verified

Final supporters

B
Braden M.
W
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T
Thomas P.
T
Tim P.
S
Someone
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Pat M.
S
Someone
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Sonja W.
M
Morgyn B.
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Dustin C.
+53 more
Started by Anonymous 15 years, 9 months ago
This league is watched by millions of us fans, and we all enjoy the hard hitting nature of the sport, but with the recent rule changes regarding fines and penalties on players, the hard hits that we love are being killed. This is obviously a matter for the players and league to discuss when building a new CBA. The issue I take with this is the fact that certain players are being fined far in excess of what is necessary. Take this past Sunday as an example (Week 12 of the 2010 season) James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers was fined $25,000 dollars for a hit on Buffalo Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, this hit in question was during the sacking of Fitzpatrick. Harrison laid in my opinion a perfectly legal hit on the QB, however he was seen to be leading with his head by the official who drew the flag (which coincidentally already seemed to be pulled out before the hit) However, this hit was not in my book worthy of a fine due to the nature of the hit, not malevolent and not dangerous. At worst this was a misjudgement of an angle by Harrison. In stark comparison take the fist fight that broke out between Cortland Finnegan of the Tennessee Titans and Andre Johnson of the Houston Texans. This fight occured in between plays and consisted of both players trying to rain punches down on the other. This also resulted in a fine of $25000 for each player involved, now tell me that the fining system is fair. There are examples of this every single week, in week 11 of this season, Oakland Raiders DT Richard Seymour punched Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger in the face after Roethlisberger threw a TD pass. This again recieved a fine of $25000.

Updates

December 1, 2010

Watching the latest games this week made me angrier than ever about how these fines are handed out. The inconsistency between punishing a hard football play versus actual violence is impossible to ignore.

December 1, 2010

Seeing this kind of momentum confirms that I am not the only one frustrated by the league handing out uneven punishment. It feels validating to know so many of you see the same double standards on the field every Sunday.

6 Comments

D
Dave Lloyd
15 years ago Featured

Football is a contact sport. If you cant handle a hit dont step on the field. This fining stuff is total bs.

J
Jason Brooks
15 years ago Featured

How is a clean sack equal to throwing punches? Roger Goodell needs to get his priorities straight.

K
Kyle Owens
15 years ago Featured

Let them play. NFL is turning into touch football smh

S
Sarah Grant
15 years ago Featured

RIDICULOUS. A fight is way worse than a tackle and they get the same fine? Fix this garbage league.

M
Mike Hudson
15 years ago Featured

The refs have it out for Harrison. It is ruining the game honestly. You cant hit anyone anymore without getting a flag.

C
Chris Yang
15 years ago Featured

The officiating is getting worse every year. Completely inconsistent.