Haloti...Check Please!

Continuing our ongoing coverage of the massive corruption that's been taking place in the NFL front offices, today I'd like to pose a question to those folks who still doubt that this is the shadiest commissioner since Comiskey. As you may have seen or at least heard about, Lahge Benjamin took a swipe from a 350 pound man to his face resulting in a loss of a pint of blood and a broken nose (on top of the broken foot he was already playing with). I can't villify Ngata for this but obviously a flag should have been thrown for illegal hands to the face or something to that effect and it wasn't. When
Ben told ref, Terry MCauley, that he just got hit in the face, Mcauley's response was "He was just trying to tackle you."

So here's my question to the AofG faithful. Yesterday, Ngata was fined 15K for this transgression along with a teammate that was fined 40K for a helmet to helmet hit on Heath Miller that also wasn't called. Back to Ngata though...let's say a player were to intentionally break the nose of another player on the field or atleast intentionally hit him through his facemask trying to cause damage. That would obviously draw more than a 15K fine right? I mean, you'd have to think it would draw at least as much as what Seymour got for what one prominent griever described as a "light shove." Common sense would dictate that it would draw significantly more. So this obviously means that Sherriff Goodell saw this as an accident and completely incidental contact and I would tend to agree with him here. So the question remains...if you're doling out these fines as a punishment and as a preventative method to reduce violent behavior...why fine Ngata at all? Doesn't make sense. You can't say something was incidental and then punish the guy anyway. What behavior are you trying to prevent?

This was a play that should have been flagged and not fined but because the call wasn't made on the field and a lot of people saw it, the commissioner decided to use his system of fining people just to save some face after such an egregious penalty wasn't called. That, once again...is fucking terrible.

Comments

[Jack Klompus]

"why fine Ngata at all? Doesn't make sense...What behavior are you trying to prevent?"

Perhaps the behavior of Steelers and Steeler fans claiming a conspiracy that they're being singled out. Good luck with that.

[Assman]

let's say a player were to intentionally break the nose of another player on the field or atleast intentionally hit him through his facemask trying to cause damage. That would obviously draw more than a 15K fine right?

The system seems to work this way:

First, they suspend people who embarrass the league or cause it PR hits.

Then they come up with fines for people who break their new rule that they created to avoid more PR hits and keep the player's union from revolting.

Then they listen to see who complains about the rule, claims any conspiracies against their team or threatens to retire because they don't like it. They fine those people more.

Ngata broke a rule, but he didn't break a PR rule or give the player's union leverage (nobody gets concussions from face swipes). He gets less of a fine than a guy that breaks the rule, complains about the rule, then breaks it again.

Is that fair? No. It's mafia law. But the point is, when the guy running the show is clearly a mafia don, you don't try and show him up.

[Vandelay]

You guys suck. I wanna fight both of you at once.

[Mr. Kruger]

Ngata should have been fined heavily for impersonating a flying cat.