The NFL seems to penalize and fine players more and more each year. And some, if not most of these penalties, are necessary to preserve the game that we love. Penalties can lose teams games such as a roughing the passer or a late hit call. Fines are a tough pill for players to swallow, but necessary for the integrity and safety of the game. Nobody wants to see a player seemingly crippled by a dirty hit. There is no place in the game for that.
But there are some penalties the NFL is calling too often this season. Due to these fines and penalties, some fans have deemed the league the No Fun League.
This year several players have been flagged for penalties where they seem to do nothing harmful or remotely wrong. After the fact, they get money taken directly out of their game check, potentially leaving them with less than half of the money owed to them for that game after taxes.
One of those penalties called way too often this year is taunting. Players such as Michael Pittman Jr., Justin Jefferson, and most recently Josh Allen were all fined after making a game-changing play for their team. Chiefs star Travis Kelce called Allen's fine "bogus."
Another penalty the NFL has called excessive this year is unnecessary roughness. They are doing this in order to eliminate players from initiating head-to-head contact. Overall, the elimination of head-to-head contact is good for the NFL, in light of serious diseases such as CTE becoming prevalent due to repeated head trauma. But sometimes, it is unavoidable or unintentional. Many players including Josh Jacobs have been flagged in this case.
Raiders RB Josh Jacobs calls out the NFL for fines
Following their dominant 30-6 win over the Giants, in a week where the Las Vegas Raiders cleared house and benched Jimmy Garoppolo, running back Josh Jacobs was fined $21,855 for unnecessary roughness.
On a play that seemed to be normal, the NFL said when Jacobs hit the hole he initiated head-to-head contact. He clapped back on Twitter Saturday calling the fine "bull—-," and called them out to fix it.
The NFL is doing the right thing to exclude activities that would injure their players, they just need a better system to penalize when it is done.
