The Atlanta Falcons and head coach Arthur Smith are in hot water for their handling of the team’s injury report back in Week 7 prior to facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the league has fined the Falcons $75,000 and coach Arthur Smith $25,000. The incident centers around running back Bijan Robinson:
Atlanta Falcons have been fined $75,000 and head coach Arthur Smith $25,000 for violating the NFL Injury Report Policy prior to the club’s Week 7 game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, per the league.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 22, 2023
Against the Bucs, Robinson barely played and only had one carry. He was not listed on the team’s injury report leading up to the game, which caused confusion.
At the time, both Smith and Robinson said he began filling ill on Saturday evening.
Smith responded to the NFL’s fine and his comments can be found below:
“What I will give the league a lot of credit for is there are a lot of things, when you’re going through the injury report, and clearly we understood their point of view, but they also understood our point of view, too, which is why it wasn’t some contentious battle. As you go through that, just full transparency, there’s an inquiry and usually you have to respond with a letter – so, it’s not like it’s some court case that you’re sitting in – it wasn’t a lot of time spent, just: Here’s how we interpreted it, here’s our intent, nothing was done to try to game anything like that. I understood their point of view, so lesson learned there. It was a good conversation, and there are probably a lot of conversations that are going to be had in the spring. That’s kind of where we ended it.
“Again, lesson learned, and we completely understand their position. I think they understood where we were coming from. So, that’s what ended up happening.”
