No Fine League
Oct 9, 2007 Fines, God hates ugly, Injury bug, Travis Johnson
According to this Chron article, Travis Johnson will not be fined for his taunting penalty. In a league where throwing a ball at someone’s feet can get you $7500 and wearing the wrong hat at the Super Bowl can get you $100,000, the NFL’s refusal to fine Johnson practically screams that they understood why he would be pissed and felt that, while the penalty was correct, so was Johnson’s being angry.
Gene Washington determined that Johnson’s taunting penalty did not warrant a fine, said Greg Aiello, the league’s senior vice president of public relations. The player was upset about what he thought was an illegal block. Gene did not believe he deserved to be fined.
Implied in that decision is that they also did not buy into the idea that Green’s own self-inflicted loss of consciousness should factor into whether what Johnson did was right or wrong. Considering how untenable and ridiculous that suggestion really is, I’m glad they feel this way. After all, where does one draw the line? What if Green was only dizzy and not out? What if he was fine and Johnson was injured? What if they both were injured? The league, unlike some knee-jerk reactionaries, does not feel that what happens to the hitter as a result of his hitting the hittee should factor into whether the hittee’s reaction to said his is fine-worthy.
With that, I’ll consider this matter closed. Though I remind you again that God don’t like ugly.
