mesaSteeler
11-10-2011, 07:15 PM
http://nflfromthesidelines.blogspot.com/
NFL from the sidelines
After hobnobbing around the NFL in the press boxes and sidelines, sports reporter Dale Lolley will let you know the insider scoop. Dale can also be heard as a sometime host on ESPN 970-AM. Follow him on Twitter at dlolleyor.
Wednesday news and notes
Ryan Clark was fined $40,000 for his penalized hit on Baltimore tight end Ed Dickson last Sunday and he and his teammates aren't happy about it.
This is the second week in a row Clark has been fined. He got hit with a $15,000 fine for hitting New England tight end Rob Gronkowski out of bounds two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Baltimore's Ray Lewis was fined $20,000 for his unpenalized helmet-to-helmet hit on Hines Ward that knocked Ward out of the game.
And therein lies part of my problem with the way the NFL levies its fines.
If a player draws a penalty for what it deemed and illegal hit, hasn't he already paid - and by extension, his team - for the incident?
How can an incident that drew a flag also draw a larger fine for a hit that wasn't flagged and also knocked a player out of a game?
Some will say it is because Clark is a repeat offender, and there is some truth to that. But Lewis has also been fined for illegal hits in the past.
James Harrison said he has not heard anything from the league about a potential fine from Sunday's game. ESPN reported that Harrison will be fined, but Harrison said that was speculation on the part of reporter Adam Schefter.
He does not expect to be fined.
© Mike Tomlin released this statement in regard to the fine on Clark: "I think the fine that Ryan Clark received was excessive. I am a proponent of player safety and the league's pursuit of improvement in this area. I, like the vast majority of people in this industry, witness daily the steep price that these young men pay to play this game on so many levels. Ryan has my full support if he chooses to appeal this in any way."
© Ben Roethlisberger talked about the final sequence of plays at the end of the game against the Ravens today. Here's what he had to say:
Q: Ben, in retrospect, would you just rather have run the ball three times at the end?
Unfortunately, the plays were there. It was either a miscommunication where one guy saw something and the other guy say something else. The plays were there. You can look at it now and say, ‘If we would have done this, this would have happened.’ You can do that in every sport after every game. We’ll go and we’ll stay aggressive because that’s the kind of offense we are.
Q: Re: The miscommunications?
I think it’s always going to happen. I guarantee that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and those guys that you say are the best offenses, have had miscommunications. You have to limit them. You can’t have them in key situations like that with guys that you expect to make the plays. If you have one a game, you have one a game, but we have to limit them and not have them in key situations.
Q: You and Mewelde Moore have completed a lot of passes over the years.
He’s running a flat route and he’s got the option to turn it up late. He felt he had the linebacker on him, which he did, he could beat him turning it up the field. He’s supposed to wait a second to see if I wait half a second to turn it up. He was excited about turning it up because he had the backer trailing him. I was trying to get it to him in the flat to get the first down. That’s one of those things that it’s the first time it ever happened and it probably won’t ever happen again.
NFL from the sidelines
After hobnobbing around the NFL in the press boxes and sidelines, sports reporter Dale Lolley will let you know the insider scoop. Dale can also be heard as a sometime host on ESPN 970-AM. Follow him on Twitter at dlolleyor.
Wednesday news and notes
Ryan Clark was fined $40,000 for his penalized hit on Baltimore tight end Ed Dickson last Sunday and he and his teammates aren't happy about it.
This is the second week in a row Clark has been fined. He got hit with a $15,000 fine for hitting New England tight end Rob Gronkowski out of bounds two weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Baltimore's Ray Lewis was fined $20,000 for his unpenalized helmet-to-helmet hit on Hines Ward that knocked Ward out of the game.
And therein lies part of my problem with the way the NFL levies its fines.
If a player draws a penalty for what it deemed and illegal hit, hasn't he already paid - and by extension, his team - for the incident?
How can an incident that drew a flag also draw a larger fine for a hit that wasn't flagged and also knocked a player out of a game?
Some will say it is because Clark is a repeat offender, and there is some truth to that. But Lewis has also been fined for illegal hits in the past.
James Harrison said he has not heard anything from the league about a potential fine from Sunday's game. ESPN reported that Harrison will be fined, but Harrison said that was speculation on the part of reporter Adam Schefter.
He does not expect to be fined.
© Mike Tomlin released this statement in regard to the fine on Clark: "I think the fine that Ryan Clark received was excessive. I am a proponent of player safety and the league's pursuit of improvement in this area. I, like the vast majority of people in this industry, witness daily the steep price that these young men pay to play this game on so many levels. Ryan has my full support if he chooses to appeal this in any way."
© Ben Roethlisberger talked about the final sequence of plays at the end of the game against the Ravens today. Here's what he had to say:
Q: Ben, in retrospect, would you just rather have run the ball three times at the end?
Unfortunately, the plays were there. It was either a miscommunication where one guy saw something and the other guy say something else. The plays were there. You can look at it now and say, ‘If we would have done this, this would have happened.’ You can do that in every sport after every game. We’ll go and we’ll stay aggressive because that’s the kind of offense we are.
Q: Re: The miscommunications?
I think it’s always going to happen. I guarantee that Tom Brady and Peyton Manning and those guys that you say are the best offenses, have had miscommunications. You have to limit them. You can’t have them in key situations like that with guys that you expect to make the plays. If you have one a game, you have one a game, but we have to limit them and not have them in key situations.
Q: You and Mewelde Moore have completed a lot of passes over the years.
He’s running a flat route and he’s got the option to turn it up late. He felt he had the linebacker on him, which he did, he could beat him turning it up the field. He’s supposed to wait a second to see if I wait half a second to turn it up. He was excited about turning it up because he had the backer trailing him. I was trying to get it to him in the flat to get the first down. That’s one of those things that it’s the first time it ever happened and it probably won’t ever happen again.