Two Ravens Fined for Illegal Hits
by Bruce Raffel on Dec 6, 2010 8:07 PM EST
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Two Baltimore Ravens were notified that they would be contributing to the league's bank accounts, after being fined for what the NFL termed "illegal hits" in Sunday night's 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Despite neither player being flagged for a penalty on each hit, the league reviewed the plays and determined that the contact violated the stricter policy that has been in effect all season.
Ravens DT Haloti Ngata was fined $15,000 for the hit on Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger on Pittsburgh's first possession that broke his nose, leaving him woozy and bloody. Linebacker Jameel McClain was served with a $40,000 fine for the hit that knocked out Steelers TE Heath Miller, resulting in a concussion that kept him out for the remainder of the game.
Normally, the Pittsburgh Steelers and specifically LB James Harrison, have been seemingly targeted for their over-aggressive transgressions, but no Steelers received fines for the game last night.
See the story on this at NFL.com.
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neither of those were lined up or flagrant. ben needs a better face mask and heath needs to learn how to stop, drop and roll,
Yes, he's serious
I thought I had an appetite for destruction. Turns out, all I really wanted was a club sandwich.
Really?
The fact neither were penalized is yet another example of the officials watching everything but what matters on the field.
Clearly, Ngata’s wasn’t intentional, and I don’t think it should have been fined, but you can’t strike a QB in the head. To be fair, though, it happened so quickly, I can’t blame the officials for missing it. Shouldn’t be a 15 grand fine.
McClain’s, though…wow…unbelievably poor. I think it’d be fair to fine him 55k, and not fine Ngata anything.
by Neal Coolong on Dec 6, 2010 10:29 PM EST up reply actions
well said
I also think Ngata’s shouldn’t have been fined…..still should have been a penalty but whatever.
However, the McClain hit was inexcusable. I will now take everything Raven says with a grain of salt probably.
And you would still be giving him too much credit...
Editor at Baltimore Beatdown - SB Nation Baltimore Ravens Blog
by Zachary Beard on Dec 7, 2010 6:29 AM EST up reply actions
McClain's hit was just a bad situation
McClain lowered his body to hit Heath in the chest. If Heath catches the ball McClain just makes a good play. Heath also dropped his body but a player coming at you at full speed just can’t stop on a dime. It’s like the little cars weaving in and out of traffic on the beltway in front of tractor trailers, they can’t stop on a dime either. When Ryan Clark hit Willis McGahee in the AFC play off game he left his feet an launched hit helmet directly ay McGahee’s head knocking him out and sending him to the hospital on a stretcher. That was a blatant attempt to inflict pain and no attempt to make a tackle. All the Steeler fans were cheering and so proud of that illegal hit with no penalty,fine or suspension. What a bunch of two faced crybabies Steeler fans are. As long as the illegal hits are going their way they have no problem with them.
Clark's hit wasn't illegal
but thats beside the point.
McClain’s could have easily, I repeat, easily prevented but he decided not to. Only you and Raven are defending this…
um, no
did you actually watched the replay? mcclain had less than a second between the ball getting tipped and miller beginning his descent, and impact. i’d like to see you “easily prevent” that hit when you’re going full speed for a tackle. a tackle, btw, that was aiming where his chest should have been, and that led with his shoulder, not his helmet.
i can’t believe all these double-standards from steeler fans.
Clark's hit was illegal
He launched a helmet to helmet shot which was an illegal hit. The same hit that cost the Jets defensive back $50,000 when he tackled Boldin in the end zone.
watch the replay. Willis lowered his helmet into Clarks helmet. It was helmet to helmet but this is one of those instances where the offensive player lowered into the defensive player.
Why you are even talking about this is absurd, why bring up something from years ago….we are talking about the hit on Heath, not the hit on Willis.
um, ridiculous
he took several steps towards Miller after Miller was already on the ground. It could have been and should have been prevented.
double standards? half the Ravens fans agree it was an unnecessary hit. Take off your purple glasses for a second.
nope
did you time it in realtime? because i did, and saw less than a second. in slow-mo it was 3 seconds, and even THAT is barely enough time to pull up after going full speed for a tackle.
ya know what
I’ll take the side of the experts, analysts, the league, and even many Ravens fans and say it was an unnecessary hit. I’ll just leave it at that.
You believe what you want.
of course, side with the reactionaries instead of determining for yourself through video evidence. but you don’t have to “take a side”, you can see for yourself and determine objectively what actually happened. or, you know, you can take the easy route that feels better to you. i’d expect no less.
classy
you know I’m not just following the leader here. I could tell what kind of hit it was before any “experts” made a comment about it.
I still don’t see how you can defend the hit, but each to his own I guess. See what you wanna see.
mike pereira sides with me, and says he thinks the mcclain hit should not have been a penalty or a fine as it was not dirty and was unavoidable. i don’t need this kind of reassurance to know what i see on the replay, but it seems you do, so here it is.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/pereira-league-needs-to-reassess-helmet-fines-120710
quit trying to belittle me
like I said, though you seemed to ignore it, I made up my own mind. What people typical do in an argument is back up their argument with other peoples opinions as well. That is what I was doing.
Fine pereira sided with you, awesome.
hahahahahaha
“I’ll take the side of the experts”
“you believe what you want”
“classy”
“see what you wanna see”
“ridiculous statement”
“take off your purple glasses”
any of this sound remotely belittling? nah, of course not.
who cares who started it?
i’m not even saying i did. i’d argue that a steeler fan coming on a raven’s blog and whining all to hell about a play by one of our players is “starting it”, but that’s beside the point. it takes two.
it was actually a rather thoughtful discussion till I got attacked. But you’re right, I shouldn’t come to another teams blog and not expect to get attacked no matter what I say, I guess thats just how it is.
seriously?
you know what they are saying, I don’t need to provide a link to show you that people thought it was an illegal hit. The announcers said it during the game, people said it on NFL Live, NFL primetime, halftime shows. No one wrote an article about it because an article wasn’t needed.
Its unbelievable that you attacked my so called double standards when Raven’s fans having been giving Harrison hell all year for his hits but then , O no, a Raven does it and its understandable. I’m done with this discussion, it cannot to be won on someone else’s blog.
1) i haven’t been giving harrison hell about his hits, although a few of them were clearly illegal. not all, but some. i especially haven’t been going on the steeler’s blog and giving him hell about it.
2) i don’t care what others think or why they think it. the argument is with you, and yet the only evidence you can claim on mcclain’s hit being illegal is “everyone else says so!” i’ve provided evidence for my position, which you dismiss out-of-hand.
I don't recall saying anything about dismissing Pereira's opinion
I said, okay, pereira agrees with you. Thats fine, he is in the minority but thats fine. Do you really need me to bring up evidence that it was an illegal hit? I really didn’t think you needed that, but you seem to be awfully grumpy about it.
i didn’t say anything about pereira. it’s about dismissing my and other’s opinions that don’t agree with yours. and yes, if you’re gonna claim so unequivocally that the hit was not only illegal, but egregious or unnecessary, you better be able to back it up with more than just “everyone agrees with me therefore you’re dumb”. i paraphrase.
you brought pereira to your defense, you did say something about him. I wasn’t dismissing others opinions, I addressed them. But just because someone else’s opinion surfaces doesn’t mean you automatically have to agree with it, and just because you disagree with them doesn’t mean im dismissing them. I tried to convince you and some others, I obviously failed. I never called anyone dumb.
McClain even put his hands up
In an attempt to lessen the impact that he knew was coming but couldn’t stop.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Dec 7, 2010 11:05 PM EST up reply actions
Still illegal despite intent
That is the rule, regardless of intentional or not, so we need to just live with it.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Dec 7, 2010 11:06 PM EST up reply actions
McClain's fine
Was probably warranted despite no penalty being called. However, it didn’t warrant a $40K fine as he is a first time offender not a repeat thug like James Harrison. As for Ngata; that he was fined is absurd. Like raven said, Ben needs a different face mask. Ngata’s hit wasn’t intentional by any stretch. Accidents happen even in the NFL. Again, my normal rant, poor officiating is just ruining the game. A serious overhaul of the rules needs to be undertaken soon or kiss the game as we used to know it, goodbye! Go Ravens!
Fines aren’t poor officiating. Missing those calls in the game was the poor officiating. Even if Ngata’s hand to Ben’s helmet was unintentional it is still a penalty by the NFL rulebook. The QB’s helmet is off limits no matter what. Should it be a fine? Probably not, but the officials don’t make up the fines, some committee we know nothing about does.
"Stop being a troll." - Mr MaLoR
by John Stephens on Dec 6, 2010 11:15 PM EST up reply actions
Also, the only hit Harrison got that was similar to the Heath hit was the Massaquoi one and that was a 75,000 fine. McClain got off light.
"Stop being a troll." - Mr MaLoR
by John Stephens on Dec 6, 2010 11:17 PM EST up reply actions
McClain didn't get off light
look at the salary differences in the two players. McClain got penalized worse than Harrison for just a bad situation that neither player could do anything about.
Salary has nothing to do with fines.
McClain definitely could have avoided that hit on Heath, just as Harrison could have avoided his.
"Stop being a troll." - Mr MaLoR
by John Stephens on Dec 7, 2010 9:59 PM EST up reply actions
It is just that footbal is such a violent game
And players try to make the play first and don’t think about the penalty or fine while in motion. Sucks that the league actually now decides to pretend to care about health, yet has no problem raking in the extra cash that an 18 game season will bring.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Dec 7, 2010 11:09 PM EST up reply actions
I do agree with you that he wasn't saying in his mind "man, I better stop."
but that doesn’t mean it he couldn’t have stopped. I’m not claiming he is a dirty player or anything but sometimes players get carried away with the game and go a little to far. Some of Harrisons hits are examples of this as well as McClains hit. However, I still believe, of all the illegal hits I’ve seen this season, McClains is the worst (with the possible exception of Merriweathers on Heap).
I just strongly disagree that the hit was unavoidable as some of the people here are claiming. Lets say while he was running he did think “o crap I better stop” do you think he would have had time to? Because I do.
How many years
of professional football experience do you have running full tilt and trying to stop. They all have one mindset MAKE THE STOP. If that would have been Harrison and Heap I would feel the same way.
another Steeler fan chiming in
The Ngata fine is dumb. But there should have been a penalty. Now McClain’s fine is not enough. 40,000 for almost decapitating Heath. Should have been 50,000 or more. i know Steeler vs Ravens games are hard hitting game, but that McClain wash just thuggish. Remember Todd Heap went out of a game for a late hit on him while he was defenseless.
overall good game though
"Franco made that play because he never quit on the play. He kept running, he kept hustling. Good things happen to people who hustle."
another steelers fan here
this pretty much sums up my opinion. the ngata hit was pretty subtle in real time, and i can forgive a no-call. but the mcclain hit was blatant and thuggish, but since the nfl is supposedly treating first time offenders lightly, 40k seems reasonable.
no fine can compensate for a bad call by the refs, though.
You sir
are everything that’s wrong with football
"I hated putting on that purple uniform, and I hated that raven bird. What really ticked me off is when we played Pittsburgh our whole stadium seemed to be filled with Pittsburgh fans." Tackle Orlando Brown
McClain deserved to be fined
But Ngata? Hell no, that’s ridiculous
by Mysterious on Dec 7, 2010 10:51 AM EST via mobile reply actions
welcome to our world
like some of the fans told us about harrison, ngata needs to adapt to the change in the NFL, you can’t hit a QB in the head period whether you meant to or not. When the shoe is on the other foot, it doesn’t fit too well now does it?
"Did you really expect Joe to have it as easy as you think it would be against James "I want to stomp of your children’s testicles" Harrison and Lamar "I’ll kick your grandmother" Woodley? I sure as hell didn’t." - Malor
by tannofsteel84 on Dec 7, 2010 11:15 AM EST up reply actions
Double Standard
I think this just shows how biased the NFL is against the Ravens. The NFL has said repeatedly that first time offenders of the “illegal hit” rule get $5,000 fines. Now all of the sudden McClain gets $40,000, that is ridiculous. Here is the video of the hit in Hi Definition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGm-CciXt6o&hd=1 Go to the 50 second mark and freeze frame it. Is it just me, or is that McClain’s shoulder going in to Miller’s helmet? Also, if you watch the clip, Miller is on his knees when he is hit. Is McClain supposed to account for the fact, as he is going full speed, that Miller is going to be on his knees? Let’s do a little math here. Miller is listed as 6-5 which means his lower leg is probably about 2 feet long (I’m 6-1 and my lower leg is just under 2 feet so this is reasonable). If Miller is 2 feet higher, this play is exactly like the Week 1, MNF hit Ray Lewis put on the Jet’s TE late in the 4th quarter where shoulder pad is driven in to the numbers. Just me 2 cents, $5,000 fine = reasonable maybe a $10,000 but definitely not $40,000
The Ngata fine is just ridiculous. Should it have been a penalty in game, yes because it was a hit to the QB’s head which is disallowed but we haven’t fined other players for hits to the QB head so why now?
Finally, in my opinion, the Steelers need to be fined for their deceitful practices in regards to injuries. What message does it send to kids out there when you announce that Ben’s nose is not broken (when clearly it is) and then immediately after the game announce that it is. Didn’t the Ravens get fined last year or the year before when they put Cundiff in to kick after he got a concussion? With all the messages the NFL is trying to send this one seems to be off the mark to me.
yeah, it’s clearly shoulder to helmet, and it only hit his helmet b/c miller was already going down. calling that an illegal hit is a stretch.
the other thing this proves is how much i came to dislike chris collinsworth, who was absolutely insufferable all game, but especially during this call.
I agree with you about Chris
It makes you want to run up and kick him right in the nuts. Would that be a 15 yd. penalty?
Collinsworth is worthless
He hates the Ravens, still gushes about the Bengals and I for one, cannot stand his southern drawl.
aka 'Rexx'
by Bruce Raffel on Dec 7, 2010 11:11 PM EST up reply actions
LOOK AT THE OVEALL OFFICIATING...
ONE WAY BECAUSE THE STEELERS WHINED ALL SEASON.BENS WAS A TOUGH PLAY,SHIT HAPPENS,BUT THE OTHER WAS LAST FLAGRANT THEN ANY OF HARRISONS,MILLER DUCKED HIS HEAD,THAT WHY THEIR WAS NO FLAG…THERE WAS A PLAY ON THE SIDELINE WHEN HINES WARD DID WHAT HE DOES A CHEAP SHOT ON LANDRY,OUT OF BOUNDS…NO FLAGS…SO COUNT THE FLAGS BETWEEN THE TWO TEAMS….THAT TELLS YOU HOW UNEVEN THE OFFICIATING REALLY WAS.IT WAS NOT WHAT LOST THE GAME,THE RAVENS GAVE IT AWAY DESPITE TROY’ DISRUPTION,HAD THE RAVENS RUN 3 TIMES,IT WOULD HAVE PUT THE CLOCK UNDER TWO MINUTES AND REMEMBER THE STEELERS TD DRIVE WAS 9 YARDS ON 3RD AND GOAL…jUST FOR THE RECORD…FLOZELL ADAMS WAS NOT QUILTY OF OFFSIDES OR HOLDING,WHICH WAS A FIRST IN HIS LONG VIOLATIONS CAREER….ASTOUNDING
Anytime you hit a defenseless player in the head it will be fined.
You can go back and study the play all you want , but it was a brutal and unnecessary helmet hit.
Furthermore it is laughable how Harbaugh smugly indicated how his players knew how to legally tackle… and someday so would Harrison. Still feel that way John?
" Just go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steeler fan, and then I think you'll finally understand"
" In America" Charlie Daniels Band
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