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When Steelers linebacker James Harrison suggested on Sunday night that a questionable roughing the passer call against him might have been motivated by some Donaghy-style activities of the officiating crew, it was obvious that Harrison would end up making a generous contribution to The Human Fund.
Per Jay Glazer of FOXSports.com, Harrison’s price tag will be $20,000.
Harrison is the third person to be fined in the past two weeks. Saints coach Sean Payton was slapped $15,000 for criticizing officials who failed to catch a key offside call in a Week Three game against the Broncos. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was docked $25,000 for his comments regarding referee Ed Hochuli.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
And it is worth every penny. Until the NFL starts penalizing officials for obvious calls from the ” what were you looking at” zone this will continue. Plus Ron Winter’s crew has a histroy of bad calls against the Steelers. Remember the false start call he made, from the Referee’s position, behind the QB, a couple of years ago, during the closing moments of a comeback attempt? when have you seen that call made from that position before or after?
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
is he protected by the first amendment?
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Stop crying about your Steelers. If it ain’t relevant, no one wants to hear it.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Wow, a Steeler laying a dirty hit… .Theres something new ..
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
This gives the impression the NFL practices Chinese-like totalitarian methods when it comes to officiating. When do the fines cross the line of free speech? Why aren’t the officials held accountable at all?
At least Big Ed Hochuli should never be assigned to another big game like MNF. He should be demoted to Detroit, KC and St. Loius games.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Hey Guy, Steelers are 4-1. Whose crying? Just stating fact, but please try to put an Obamam, Marxist twist on it, baby.
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Howdohavethetime, I agree with the jist of your arguement, but it was not Ed who did this game, it was Ron Winter, who’s crew may be the worst in the NFL, you can check back on places they have called and have never been back. That says a lot.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
that is the worst fine. players are treated bad by the NFL. and ref’s are treated like little BABY’S. It was not an intentional hit and he get’s fined but ref’s make bad calls and are sent to there million dollar homes to eat a steak.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Florio –
Can you find out why the fines are different? The amounts seem arbitrary as they all crticized officials. Heck, I think Harrison’s comments were much worse than Jerry Jones’ yet he was hit with a $5k more in fines. Maybe that’s because he’s an owner, but then that would not seem to be consistent becomes if you want to make those with more power pay more, then a coach should have to pay more than a player, and Payton saved $5K compared to Harrison. Please find out and let us know. Thanks.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
No, ClevelandSucks, he is not protected by the 1st Amendment, as has been pointed out numerous times before. That relates to protection from the government, not Roger GODdell.
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Rating: 2 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
silverback speaks the truth goodell doesn’t want you to hear.
.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
The fines are there to keep the teams from reprimanding the officials for good reason. If the teams reprimand the officials the officials will become biased against that team causing more bad calls against the team.
The question is where is the crew that is supposed to be reprimanding the officials. Game after game there are bad calls and it has gotten worse recently such as the game deciding call the led to Denver beating San Diego in week 2. I don’t know who is supposed to be reprimanding the officials but that one bad call should have cost the ref a lot of money or even his career. I am not a fan of either team. I love football and am getting sick of watching games with such poor officiating.
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October 7th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
The players, coaches owners, fans, writers, play by play guys, analysts, EVERYBODY needs to keep hammering away at the poor officiating until the league acknowledges the problem and fixes it. One of the main fixes is STOP over officiating games. The zebra’s spend so much time trying to scrutinize every player on every play for the most minor of infractions that they miss the obvious shiat. Pay attention to spot, possession and scoring and call the obvious penalties, but otherwise let them play!
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Stingray hit the nail on the head pretty much. Way too much officiating. I start to wonder whether what we are watching is figure skating or football….is this a catch…..did the guy have possession..every little thing is scrutinized by the zebras. I am like good grief. Let them play for Pete’s sakes!
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October 7th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Goodell is a total clown.
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Rating: 4 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 7th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
anyone who thinks that was a cheap hit is obviously retarded… simple as that. Watch the film and watch that play and tell me it’s a late hit and deserved a 15 yard penalty. There was a similar hit by Quinten Groves on Ben Roethlisberger earlier in the game but nothing was called and Groves drove Ben into the ground and Harrison didn’t. Something needs to be done about this situation. There needs to be some consistency both ways when it comes to calls like this and there clearly isn’t right now.
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October 8th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Watching the play in full speed, you can even see where Silverback lets up on the guy. Totally rediculous call. I hope the other guys who make considerably more than Harrison chipped in, as he really doesn’t make a ton of money(relatively speaking).
There were a lot of ticky tack calls in that game, including a couple taunting penalties that were utterly rediculous(one against each side). I really have to question the competence of that whole officiating squad.
Anyways. sometimes it hurts your pocketbook to speak the truth.
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October 8th, 2008 at 2:10 am
i would like to see anyone else try and officiate these games at the speed they are played at. sure its easy to see that its a foul once the announcer stops the tape, rewinds, and shows it to you in slow motion, but its understandable when they miss calls every once in a while.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
October 8th, 2008 at 8:04 am
There seems to be more blown calls than ever this year, and the fact that nobody is allowed to complain about poor officiating is retarded. I don’t know how you fix the bad calls - if the league punishes the refs with fines or suspensions, or if the public lambastes them like they did on the Bush facemask non-call, you’ll end up with a bunch of neutered old men on the field afraid to make calls. If they don’t get punished, though, then you get debacles like we have this year. Or, if you’re on the affected team, you get debacled.
Somehow the refs have to be held more accountable than “your season grade came out poor, you won’t be reffing the Superbowl.”
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
October 8th, 2008 at 11:23 am
@ClevelandSucks, brauneyz
A little more clarification.
He IS protected by the 1st Amendment. The police are not after him because he criticized the ref’s. He is not facing jail time or a trial or being tarred and feathered.
He’s under contract with the league and is bound by that contract to watch his mouth or face league imposed consequences. Just like if you were to publicly state your dissatisfaction with your job/boss. You’d probably be looking for a new one, but you certainly would face no criminal punishment.
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October 8th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Roughing the passer and pass interference have turned into game-changing guesses. Fining Harrison 20K for saying the obvious does a disservice to the league. Refs don’t seem to be fined for ridiculous calls, so when they are called out correctly for ridiculous calls, the league should stand silently by as a deterrent to future ridiculous calls. Save me the speeches about how they are not selected for play-offs games based on their performances. The incentive system is simply not there.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)