The NFL’s Week 4 fine report handed Titans defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers a $12,537 bill for “striking/kicking/kneeing,” but the number barely matches what the video shows.
The play came in the second quarter of Sunday’s Titans-Ravens game, on a touchdown catch by Ravens tight end Mark Andrews from Lamar Jackson. The broadcast missed the full sequence, but the film does not.
Derrick Henry had cut-blocked Franklin-Myers. After the ball was secured in the end zone, Henry was down on all fours and not looking when Franklin-Myers stepped back and drove his knee into Henry’s midsection.
No flag came out on the field, and the incident apparently escaped the officials’ attention. Still, it was the kind of needless shot that could have drawn an ejection, and it’s a little hard to see how it didn’t land Franklin-Myers in suspension territory.
Instead, the league treated it as a relatively minor fine - one that doesn’t even come close to the punishment handed out for other offenses this season. The amount is less than what Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and Browns running back Quinshon Judkins were fined for a celebration that mimed smoking a joint. It’s also nearly half of the $23,882 the Ravens’ LaJohntay Wester was fined earlier this season for displaying an unauthorized logo on his gloves after the Week 1 game against the Colts.
The NFL and NFL Players Association negotiate the fine schedule, but the contrast is obvious: a deliberate knee to an unsuspecting opponent’s stomach costs $12,537, while an unauthorized logo on official gloves costs $23,882.
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