Sorts of Sports

I'm Defending the Steelers?

I am not a big fan of the Steelers. I think Pittsburgh is a miserable city, right ahead of Detroit, and the city was too unoriginal and stupid to change their sports' teams' colors from anything but black and gold (see Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates). But now the NFL and Roger Goodell is making me feel bad for James Harrison?

Harrison was fined another $25,000 for a late hit or sack after the ball was thrown by Bills' quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick. Harrison was flagged on the play, which looked questionable to begin with, but after the game, he didn't think anything of a fine, considering he was called on the same thing last week against the Raiders and received no fine.

Well Goodell felt the need to slap Harrison with a fine, enough to make up for last week's no fine. 'Experts' said that he shouldn't be fined, yet he was fined 5x as much as a hit he had against Vince Young earlier this year. If you watch the replay, the ball was released less than a second earlier than the hit. This was not an intentional helmet-to-helmet hit either.

Meanwhile, another player in the NFL threw and landed 3 punches on another player and got $25,000 fine. If you didn't know the names of the players involved, you would say that it isn't justified, and I get the point that repeat offenders should be punished more harshly than first time offenders, but there is a difference between punching to the face and a late hit in which no one was ejected.

I don't see how a late hit suddenly warrants fines at all? Should holding penalties bring about fines? Chop-blocks are bringing about $5,000 fines now. At what point is all of this getting out of control, and more importantly, at what point to they just create a point system to better dictate fines? Should facemask penalties bring about fines? Think about the possible damage done by grabbing a facemask?

I hate Harrison more than I hate Hines Ward and Big Ben. He gave Welker a cheap shot 2 years ago which didn't receive one cent of a fine. Now he is getting unfairly treated for playing a game that glorifies big plays, albeit clean or not. I just think that the NFL is going the wrong way with the idea of protecting players.

At least they aren't planning on extending the season to put more wear and tear on players and their careers....