J.J. Watt isn’t happy with the fine the NFL handed to Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown.
The league announced on November 25 that St. Brown was fined $43,709 for a block had made in the team’s Week 11 win over the Chicago Bears. It was the largest fine handed out by the league that week, but drew considerable controversy as St. Brown made only light contact on the play.
Not long after the penalty was announced, Watt took to social media to blast the league for what he saw as “stealing” money from the Lions receiver.
NFL Accused of ‘Stealing’ From Lions Receiver
Watt linked to a video shared of St. Brown’s hit, noting that it was difficult for him to even find the infraction. As the NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero noted in the original post, the league is cracking down on players who lower their head to initiate contact with defenders.
“Here we go again… General rule of thumb: If you have to watch the video multiple times to try figuring out which person did something wrong and you still can’t figure it out, we probably shouldn’t be taking $43,709 from someone,” Watt wrote on X, formerly know as Twitter. “This. Is. Stealing. Money.”
St. Brown also took to X to share his thoughts on the controversial fine, sharing Pelissero’s post and the caption: “Almost 5% of my salary. I’m hurting”
As Jeremy Reisman of SB Nation’s Pride of Detroit noted, the fine was meant to send a message that the league wants players to stop lowering their head when making contact.
“Whether he’s being sarcastic or not, he’s actually telling the truth,” Reisman wrote. “His salary this year is $940,000, as he is only in the third year of his rookie contract. And while in the long run, St. Brown is going to get paid and this will only be a drop in the bucket, it speaks to a larger point for players who will not get massive extensions and their entire careers may be played on cheap rookie deals. These types of fines are not insignificant to those players.”
Lions Moving Ahead After Rough Loss
The Lions are coming off a difficult loss to the Green Bay Packers on Thanksgiving, falling behind early and failing to crawl back in the 29-22 loss.
After the game, Lions head coach Dan Campbell said the 8-3 Lions are looking ahead and not going into “panic mode” over the defeat to their divisional rival.
“The easy thing is to get in panic mode,” Campbell told reporters, via NFL.com. “I know what it looks like, and we’ve been good enough out there, but I’m not panicked. We got the right guys who know how to play. We’re going to clean some things up, and we’ll have six (games) to go when we get back. And the fight is on now. I mean, they think these are going to be some cruise control. We’re going to have to fight and scratch and fight and claw for everything, man. We have to. That’s the type of team we are. That’s where we’re at.”