Aqib Talib has never been in the conversation for any sportsmanship awards, and he continues to add to the list of grievances against him with his conduct in Super Bowl 50, and remarks shorty after.
In the second quarter of Sunday night’s game, Talib prevented Carolina Panthers receiver Corey ‘Philly’ Brown from scoring with a blatant facemask penalty that cost the Broncos just a yard and a half due to the close proximity to the goal line. It seemed pretty obvious to everyone watching that it was intentional, though it was all speculation until Talib came forward, proudly admitting his guilt.
“One I just did on purpose, and I just had to show him. It’s probably going to be a fine, but hey, we’re world champs,” Talib said regarding the penalty (via NESN.com).
It should and probably will be more than just a fine. Penalties such as this one will continue to be a permanent fixture in the game if the NFL doesn’t take action. Honestly, who can blame him? There’s no ordinance saying a player can be thrown out of the game for an offense such as this, and considering it amounted to a yard-and-a-half penalty, there was really no downside if he’s thinking he’ll just be fined. Anything less than $100,000 is basically pocket change.
He’ll probably be suspended, because allowing this to happen in football is a dangerous precedent. Many players have a win-at-all-cost mentality, so we’ll continue to see this if no significant action is taken to change that mindset. Commissioner Roger Goodell has already said that he plans to propose a change to the rules committee that would mandate an automatic ejection for any player who receives two personal foul penalties in one game.
It’s a fair proposal, because it sends a message saying that this kind of behavior isn’t acceptable, while also protecting players from being thrown out of a game because of one judgement call. It’s difficult to deduce intent in most situations, but as far as Talib goes, intent was pretty clear.
