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NFL players may have gotten the message sent by the league with its onslaught of fines for unsportsmanlike conduct in the season’s second week.
Only five players were fined by the NFL for violations related to unsportsmanlike conduct in Week 3 games. The league announced those fines Saturday.
The Panthers’ Lee Hunter was fined $10,174 for taunting; the Patriots’ Mack Hollins and the Giants’ Abdul Carter were fined $11,941 apiece for taunting; and the Broncos’ Quinn Meinerz and Jaylen Waddle were fined $14,926 each for illegal celebrations and vulgar acts.
Waddle and Meinerz were fined for pretending to roll dice following Waddle’s catch on a successful two-point conversion attempt during the Broncos’ win last Sunday night over the Rams in Denver.
The players can appeal the fines.
The latest number contrasts with last Saturday, when the NFL announced 22 fines totaling $300,089, doled out to 13 different players for unsportsmanlike conduct violations during Week 2. Of those 22 fines, 13 were for illegal celebrations and vulgar acts, five for obscene gestures, and four for taunting.
An NFL Players Association spokesman shared a statement with Front Office Sports last Saturday that the union was working with the league to resolve Week 2 fines to players for celebrations supposedly involving pretend beer-chugging. The NFLPA said the players and the union had not been informed previously that such celebrations would be subject to fines.
FOS reported in August that the league, at the behest of the NFL competition committee, planned to continue strictly enforcing its sportsmanship-related rules this season, including illegal celebrations and taunting.
Players’ toned-down on-field behavior after the Week 2 fines was evident during last Sunday’s Week 3 games. Star wide receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins of the Bengals and Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Lions all had modified celebrations after touchdown catches. They’d been assessed a combined 10 fines for their Week 2 celebrations.
