We all often wonder how NFL on-field officials call penalties on some plays, but the don’t see others during games. That’s also the case with fines the league assesses in the aftermath of games, especially those that weren’t penalized.
Now, with the playoffs beginning, on Saturday the NFL revealed the fines from Week 18 games and the result is surely shocking from the Arizona Cardinals game against the San Francisco 49ers.
Certainly, everyone expected there to be fines for the three players involved in altercations on consecutive plays in the second quarter.
While blocking, 49ers wide receiver Jauan Jennings instigated reactions from Cardinals cornerbacks Star Thomas V and Sean Murphy-Bunting that ended with the players on the ground and other players racing to the scene.
Offsetting personal fouls were called on Jennings and Thomas in the first instance and the same in the second although Jennings and Murphy-Bunting were disqualified.
Jennings was laughing after the second one and then took a lot of time before finally leaving the field. He also threw both players to the ground after the initial contact and hit them in the head area. The block on Murphy-Bunting started at around the 1-yard line and the back-and-forth ended about four yards short of the back of the end zone.
However, after being involved in the two altercations, Jennings inexplicably was not fined. Murphy-Bunting was fined $11,817 while Thomas was fined $5,083.
It’s difficult to imagine any universe where a player could have two personal foul penalties and an ejection, but not be fined.
There was a 49ers player fined for the use of his helmet on a first-quarter play in the game. Fullback Kyle Juszczyk was the lead blocker on a Patrick Taylor run and lowered his helmet into the head and neck area of Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson Sr., who had missed the game two weeks before that against the Carolina Panthers because of a concussion.
Wilson took exception to the block and briefly got in the face of Juszczyk, who was fined $16,619. There was no penalty flagged on the play.
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