Cortland Finnegan jersey

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Every Wednesday, after the high of another football Sunday has finally settled down, we hear news about players who have been fined. No, these are not fines for taking a drunken joy ride around one of the most populous cities in the world at 5 A.M. What? Braylon Edwards did not get fined for that? And he played?! If you dislike Rex Ryan, you have to appreciate his ability to finagle a situation to his benefit.
2010 NFL News: Tennessee Titans’ Cortland Finnegan Says The Fine System Doesn’t Work
Anyway, back to the topic I was discussing before I was rudely interrupted by my little rant. Wednesday has become “Fine Day,” the day players get the mail from Mr. Rogers (Roger Goodell) informing them they have been fined for a Personal Foul or a hit Roger determines was flagrant. That second part has to bug any football fan. A referee, who certainly knows more about the NFL rulebook than Mr. Goodell, determines a hit should not have been a foul. Then, Roger goes into his little lab, does some tests with beakers and Bunsen burners, makes printouts of schematics, and then determines the player should be fined. Interesting approach, Roger.
Anyway, the players get their fines on Wednesday, whether or not it was a foul. From there, they can choose to fund Goodell’s weekend golf trip pay the fine, and the money goes toward charity, or they can appeal it. I have absolutely no idea how often fines are overturned, but I would assume the odds are not on the player’s side. A player like [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] does not need to worry about $5,000 dollars when he is making roughly $2.6 million in 2010. Cha-ching. [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] could pay 320 of those fines and still take home a cool million. So, who cares? Well, there are a lot of players who only bank around $250k a year, which can make that fine a much bigger deal. By the way,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], is it foolish of me to use the word “only” and a six-digit salary in the same sentence? Probably, but it is all relative.
Comments like [link widoczny dla zalogowanych]’s do not surprise me. Most players who get fined probably feel the same way but wisely use a little bit of discourse when speaking about their fines. Players are not going to change the way they have played their entire lives just because they got docked a small chunk of change (relativity, people). They were trained to play hard, hit hard, and do just about anything to win. I am not saying these players are intentionally making dirty plays; far from it. Generally, these guys have just a few fractions of a second to make a play. Sometimes, your hand accidentally grasps a face mask or your helmet sails a little too high on the QB when you are trying to make a play. Mistakes happen. These fines do nothing though except support a few wonderful charitable foundations.
“Nobody cares about fines,” Tennessee Titans cornerback [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] said. “It doesn’t matter. I am going to keep playing the way I play and if we keep getting a FedEx every week (with a fine notice from the NFL) and win football games, I could care less about getting a FedEx.”

As [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] alludes, the thing that matters most to these players (that is, all players not named Albert Haynesworth) is wins and losses. I realize they are not playing for just the love of the game, but they do want to win. If Goodell wanted to actually make a move that made players more cautious about dangerous plays, he would go after a player’s playing time, maybe suspend him for a quarter every time he gets fined. Also, he could make that suspension increase in length for each fine, sort of like the substance abuse policy, but on a smaller scale. The idea seems kind of ridiculous, but Roger is just as ridiculous if he thinks his system is going to change the way these guys play.