Two Lions were fined for penalties they received during last Sunday's Jets game. The first, Stephen Peterman, was fined a total of $10,000 for his two chop blocks. The problem? The calls were absolutely terrible and Peterman did nothing wrong. The defenders he cut blocked were not engaged by another blocker, so no flags should have been thrown. The NFL decided to fine him anyway, but Peterman is appealing it.
"I went and talked to him (the official) and he basically told me I was baiting the guy into chopping him," Peterman said.
"I didn't understand that," Peterman said Wednesday. "That's why we kept doing it. We didn't think it was a great call (the first time) so we went ahead and kept chopping in the game. They called it again and after that we stopped because for some reason they were calling it that day."
Peterman added that he doesn't know if the NFL actually watched the game film, because if they had it's pretty clear the penalties were bad calls. If anybody should be fined it's the awful referees for making up crap like "baiting" as a reason to call a chop block penalty.
The other Lions player that received a fine is Julian Peterson. He was hit with a $7,500 fine for his late hit on LaDainian Tomlinson toward the end of the fourth quarter. While what he did was certainly a late hit and a dumb penalty to take, I don't understand how it was fine-worthy. I don't think Peterson understands the NFL's decision either, as he felt like the league is piling on him and that the penalty was enough punishment for what happened.
"It's bad enough to get the penalty and everybody thinks I lost the game for us, but now I get fined on top of it,'' said Peterson, adding that he won't appeal it. "What good would that do?''
I guess this is just business as usual for the NFL. Peterman gets fined for two BS penalties and Peterson gets fined for shoving Tomlinson just as he stepped out of bounds. Both fines are beyond ridiculous in my view, especially when a Jets player who is on the sideline and not involved in the action shoves Louis Delmas after a play and not only doesn't get fined, but he doesn't even receive a penalty.