The NFL fines so many players so much money each week that it’s hard sometimes to keep the numbers straight. But two players recently fined show how little logic there is to the league’s schedule of fines.
Eagles defensive lineman Fletcher Cox has been fined $9,115 after each of his last two games, for illegal hits on Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins. Meanwhile, Giants receiver Odell Beckham was fined this week $24,309 for taking his helmet off after scoring a touchdown.
Let’s think about that for a moment: Player safety is supposedly the NFL’s highest priority, with excessive hits on quarterbacks among the plays the league most desperately wants to eliminate. And yet when Cox excessively hit two different quarterbacks in back-to-back games, he was fined a total of $18,230. Taking a helmet off after scoring a touchdown harms no one. And yet when Beckham did it once, he was fined $24,309.
If a judge fined one person $500 for jaywalking and fined another person $200 for assault, we’d say that judge’s priorities were seriously skewed. That’s what we should say about the NFL’s approach to player fines as well. These fines are collectively bargained, and so the players themselves bear some of the blame for allowing the NFL’s discipline structure to reach this point, but regardless of who’s to blame, the fines in the NFL are seriously out of whack.