Sherrod Martin fined 40K by the NFL

[Paintballr]

It's a fourth offense on his part. Fine like that is automatic.

He's seriously has had four violations of helmet to helmet hits the past 2 years?

[Gazi]

He's seriously has had four violations of helmet to helmet hits the past 2 years?

Yes. 2 this year and 2 last year when they were called FOOTBALL

[Swarly]

they were just talking about the fine on ESPN and Mark Schlereth brought up a good point..

why are running backs allowed to lead with their helmet, while defenders can't?

[ElkinPanthersFan]

Hey, it's 4x the amount of contact that Godfrey would shy away from...

[lightsout]

BS...God this league is miserable. A couple of Harrison's hits, yeah, you can make a case it is dirty, but this most recent one is COMPLETE bull. Goodell needs to be replaced. He's made NFL football almost unwatchable.

[Hairless Cat]

Its obvious that the helmet to helmet was not intentional- this is completely stupid - he shouldnt have even been called for it in the game

this crap has to stop or where will it end?

[Icege]

Terrible. Just terrible.

Sherod Martin came up and made a big play. He didn't lead with his head, he kept his head upand ran through the tackle the same way every player is taught. Flags need to be thrown when the rule is being broken, not when helmet-to-helmet is incidental. It's going to happen.

It's just a matter of time now. Who's going to be the guy to finally make an example of some poor guy and blast his knees to kingdom come?

Throughout the rest of the game, Martin aimed at the ankles, and would even slow up before contact. That's ridiculous. The worst part about it is that there's little to no way for an offensive player to randomly get hit by the fine.

[Jangler]

Goodell should be fined 150k for unsportsmanlike conduct.

[ElkinPanthersFan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5871501

“ They don't care about the safety of the game. If the league was so concerned about the safety, why are you adding two more games on? You talk about you don't want players to drink ... and all you see is beer commercials. You don't want us to gamble, but then there are [NFL-endorsed lottery scratch-off games]. ”

-- Hines Ward

"We don't know what the league wants. ... If a quarterback gets hit within the play, you can't hit him in the helmet, you can't hit him in the knees," Ward said. "Where can you hit a quarterback? I keep seeing our quarterback getting hit all the time."

"The league has their favorites," Suggs said Wednesday. "One being in Indy [Manning] and one being with that team up north [brady]. Besides those two, everybody is fair game. Like I always said, [the Bengals'] Carson Palmer got his knee hurt in 2005, but there was no rule made. Then Tom Brady got hit in the knee and all of a sudden there is rule and possible suspensions, excessive fines. It's just getting ridiculous."

Roethlisberger, asked about Suggs' comments, said, "He seems to know some things about the game of football."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5871579

Martin commentary

"When you start tackling lower they're going to come up with a rule like that," cornerback Captain Munnerlyn said. "I'm really kind of lost in this situation."

Even Browns fans in the comments said it was BS at the time in the game...

Alotta truth that the NFL won't admit to... Watering this poo down too much.

[LaChance87]

Amazing. 40k fine for a football play, yet Andre Johnson and Finnigan get into a BRAWL and it's like $25k.

Hello?

I agree, he was playing football and made a hit... Those two were out there fighting!... Personally I think they should have been suspended, for at least a game.

[Brooklyn Bully]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=5871501

“ They don't care about the safety of the game. If the league was so concerned about the safety, why are you adding two more games on? You talk about you don't want players to drink ... and all you see is beer commercials. You don't want us to gamble, but then there are [NFL-endorsed lottery scratch-off games]. ”

-- Hines Ward

"We don't know what the league wants. ... If a quarterback gets hit within the play, you can't hit him in the helmet, you can't hit him in the knees," Ward said. "Where can you hit a quarterback? I keep seeing our quarterback getting hit all the time."

"The league has their favorites," Suggs said Wednesday. "One being in Indy [Manning] and one being with that team up north [brady]. Besides those two, everybody is fair game. Like I always said, [the Bengals'] Carson Palmer got his knee hurt in 2005, but there was no rule made. Then Tom Brady got hit in the knee and all of a sudden there is rule and possible suspensions, excessive fines. It's just getting ridiculous."

Roethlisberger, asked about Suggs' comments, said, "He seems to know some things about the game of football."

Alotta truth that the NFL won't admit to.

Hines forgot to say that he still wants to be taken care of after he retires. Even more so if his brain is screwed up. The whole system is a mess. Players want to play, the NFL curbs how they can play, the players gripe about more games, then gripe when they get penalties, and the vets want the be covered for bodily damage. There's no solving this one.

[zebrainz]

What the NFL is doing now is reactionary crisis management leadership. Basically, they are creating a big enough stink among the players to ensure the players know they mean business. I think they have their attention at this point. The next step is to stop fining and suspending these defensive players when it's clearly not their fault. Crisis management is effective (and sometimes necessary) in the short term, but will not permanently solve this problem. Crisis management never does.

If you look at the side view of Martin's hit, you'll see that Marshall ended up on the ground and grabbed the Brown's receiver leg trying to tackle him, causing him to stumble. The Browns receiver was not intentionally lowering his head, but there was nothing either player could have done to prevent the head to head collision after his head unexpectedly began to lower. Cliff notes? IMO this one was unavoidable and unintentional. If the players involved are in good faith taking the right steps to avoid a helmet to helmet hit, what more can you ask of them? A different (non crisis management) solution is required.

Much like when a running back gets away with a facemask with a "stiff arm", I think if an offensive player lowers their helmet right before impact they should be fined as well (key words here->) if it was avoidable. This whole thing is way too one sided and focused on the DBs as the bad guys. To prevent helmet helmet hits, it needs to be expanded to include all players, but some common sense also needs to be applied.

I wonder if rugby players end up with brain damage from concussions. I'm thinking probably not. The no pads/no helmets thing could work, but it would radically change the game and the skillsets required to play it. There are plenty of options to explore here to find a long term solution and the NFL needs to explore them, not just focus on one narrow aspect of the game.

[Jangler]

I agree, he was playing football and made a hit... Those two were out there fighting!... Personally I think they should have been suspended, for at least a game.

And the NFL not have the best player on the field for their Thursday night game? pssshaw

[Floppin]

Boxing isn't MMA which is what he was talking about.

But I hope you realize that boxers take more hits to the head than do MMA fighters.

The bigger gloves make it so it is actually much harder to score a knock out, so fighters in boxing take much more repeated blows to the head, and for a longer duration.

Fighters in an MMA bout take less hits to the head and when they do get a hard hit, it doesn't take nearly as many to drop them.

It's not merely a hard punch from boxing that causes the damage, its the constant blow after blow, for long periods of time.

Boxing match 4-12 rounds 3 mins per round

MMA(UFC) 3 rounds 5 for championship fight 5 minutes each.

Bigger gloves do not make it harder to score a knockout. It's actually the whipping motion of the head that makes you black out, not the force of the concussion (generally).

Also by the laws of physics, punches thrown without gloves deliver more newtons of force per surface area than punches thrown with gloves because the force is distributed over a greater area. So in theory an MMA fighter will sustain more damage to his brain in fewer punches than a boxer.