Troy fined

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000...k-for-calling-wife?module=HP11_headline_stack\

cell phone use on the sideline

 

No surprise.

 

Antonio Smith was fined $7,200 for unnecessary roughness.
Troy fined 10k for using a cellphone.

Bizarrely, I actually approv of this order. Less cellphones, more roughness, if you please Mr Goodell.

 

It makes me mad that AJ Hawk got fined $10,000 for giving the sidelines the finger and Troy gets the same amount for alerting his wife that he was okay after a head injury which the NFL says it is trying to eliminate.

I think Troy should appeal saying that he was concussed and not able to think straight and should therefore not get fined. What do you think?

 

Yup, had a hunch this was coming. A rule is a rule and Troy broke it, but maybe if the league office wasn't so corrupt they would've waived this one due to circumstance. Can I say that word now, circumstance? I wonder if he would've been fined for leaving the field before the game ended had he chosen to make the call from the locker room. Wouldn't surprise me.

 

To quote Mike Tyson "Dats jast ludacrist"

 

Hard to bend on this rule. If they did, the bench would look like a call center with the way some of these guys live on twitter and other social media.

 

I would make the camera guy pay it, he's the one who showed Troy using it.

 

I am just wondering why they have cell phones on the sidelines anyway

 

To call their wives after they get hurt to let them know they are ok. :-D

 

Completely ridiculous fine. $10K? Ar you kidding me? It wasn't even his phone!

The NFL needs to use some common sense when applying rules. If a guy is on his cellphone Tweeting or something, that's one thing. If a guy is on the phone talking to his concerned wife for a minute or two, let it go. This ruling with an iron fist stuff just makes the league look foolish.

 

Its a case of drawing a line somewhere, though. If they judged on a case-by-case scenario like that, then it wouldn't be long before they were accused of bias. (Still can't understand how other fans think that we're favoured by the refs, but they do...)

It's a bit like the TD celebration rules - they always seem draconian when we get a penalty for "more than one player celebrating" or whatever that rule is, but I'd rather that than people pulling out sharpies and the like.

 

He should've used blue tooth, they wouldn't be able to see it. He could hide a Phone Booth in that hair.

 

They could just call it an extenuating circumstance and leave it at that. Allowing Troy to call his wife isn't going to start a cell phone problem.

 

The rule is NO CELL PHONES. There is no grey area. Any player caught on a cell could say he was calling his wife. Its like everyone on trail for a crime....I'M INNOCENT.

 

Saying it's ok to use a cell phone for certain things just adds inconsistency to the enforcement of the rules. IMHO that is the last thing the NFL needs.

What else is an extenuating circumstance? Where does the list stop?

 

The rule is no cell phones, but there are extenuating circumstance for every rule or law. Ruling with an iron fist is just foolish. "Zero tolerance" never works is a ALWAYS a bad idea. You need to have leeway.

It is not inconsistent to say no cell phones except in the case of an injury.

An extenuating circumstance is obviously not going to be something unimportant. If a player has a family issue or a health issue, calling their family would certainly qualify.

This is in no way a slippery slope situation. There are clear-cut differences here between that Troy did and what might actually cause problems.

 

Sorry, I disagree that zero tolerance doesn't work. It can work in simple cases like this. No cell phones means no cell phones. It's cut and dry and there is nothing to interpret. If Troy was that concerned about letting his wife know he was ok, have someone else call her or go into the lockerroom and make the call.

 

Zero tolerance never works, ever. You need to have leeway, otherwise you end up over-punishing, like this. The punishment must fit the crime, and calling your wife to tell her you're not seriously hurt is not a punishable offense in the slightest. Sorry.

 

I'm not sure why you say zero tolerance never works.

We aren't talking about a crime, we are talking about a clearly stated rule that everyone in the NFL knows. Apparently Troy was willing to accept the consequences of breaking the rule and I'm willing to bet that the fans are more upset than Troy is.

He'll make $10K in the first 2 seconds of his next Head and Shoulders commercial.

We'll just have to agree to disagree.