Eagles defensive end Jason Babin was fined $15,000 for a hit on San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith in Sunday’s game.
According to the NFL, Babin was fined for making contact with the “neck area” of Smith.
The NFL’s leader with seven sacks, Babin is furious about the league’s decision to fine him for a play that he considers to be just playing football. He says he didn’t realize that the neck area is off limits and he plans to appeal.
“I just get a little upset, because I guarantee you, if you were to take guys who played five years ago, ten years ago, put them on a panel, and be like, ‘All right, watch these plays, do you think these are fineable offenses?’ They’d be like, ‘No, they should get bonsuses.’
“The funny part was on that play, Trent Cole was high-lowed (by a blocking tandem). You could tell they game-planned it. How are they going to fine me when you see a coacxh and players gameplan to high-low the best pass rusher on our team?,” Babin said. “He wasn’t hurt, but he could have been. The running back comes to cut him, then the other guy comes to hit him high.”
Oh, and Babin also had the following tweet about 12 hours ago: “Attn:Guy at the NFL that decides on who and how much players get fined Stop being a puppet, if you want to protect QB’s, get better linemen”
Regardless, I don’t expect Babin to win the appeal, especially because this isn’t the first time that he has been fined for a hit on a quarterback.
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I agree with Babin. First off, with as often as he gets to the quarterback, he was going to have one of his hits get fine fined. I feel like defensive players should only get fined if the hit was malicious. It has got to the point where they are almost playing two hand touch. I don’t understand all this talk of protecting quarterbacks. Everyone gets hit, everyone gets blindsided, it is a part of football.
I love the tweet:“Attn:Guy at the NFL that decides on who and how much players get fined Stop being a puppet, if you want to protect QB’s, get better linemen”. Great response from a defensive lineman.