Focus on player safety, Steelers tell NFL brass
TORONTO DeAngelo Williams and the Steelers want commissioner Roger Goodell to get tough with the league’s rebel-rousers.
If not, they fear, somebody is going to be seriously hurt.
Williams is critical of “the NFL’s illogical fine system” in which Cincinatti’s Vontaze Burfict was dinged for $75,000 — but not suspended — after hitting Patriots’ Martellus Bennett low and appearing to stomp LeGarrette Blount.
The Steelers also filed a formal complaint, asking the league office to look into Miami’s Ndamukong Suh intentionally kicking Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger last week.
“Here are my issues w/the NFL’s illogical fine system and w/Burfict (we can’t grow strong as a players union if we’re not for each other!),” Williams said on Twitter.
In a video, Williams questioned the rationale of suspending players for using marijuana, yet, “it’s fine for somebody to go in and purposefully try to hurt someone. I don’t get it. … He just got fined, no ban.”
Burfict and Suh have earned renegade reputations for their reckless disregard of opponents; one in which Burfict has been fined more than $800,000 the past five seasons.
Steelers guard Ramon Foster says the NFL is “absolutely not” doing enough to punish repeat offenders when it comes to player safety, saying “that (fine) doesn’t matter to (Burfict). You fine (Antonio Brown) more for freaking dancing in the end zone.”
Odell Beckham Friday, too, was fined $24,309 simply for taking his helmet off in the end zone while celebrating a TD.
Williams can’t understand why a player would try to injure another player.
“You’re putting other people’s livelihood, how they take care of their family, into play. We’re already in this fight, this struggle of NFL players versus NFL owners. Why would we self-implode with a player of our own that’s one of us trying to hurt one of us?”
JET- TISONING THE SEASON?
The Jets are a plane wreck. With just one win in six games to dine out on, cannibalism is setting in. Brandon Marshall and Sheldon Richardson had to be separated in a heated locker-room exchange by coach Todd Bowles after a loss to Kansas City the third week of the season.
Marshall told ESPN.com it was just a disagreement between “two Alpha males … two bulls.”
Bowles claims there were no after-effects.
Still, it hints the Jets are as much in disarray off the field as they appear to be on it.
HURTIN’ GAME
Ravens coach John Harbaugh said it was “encouraging” to see Joe Flacco (shoulder) return Friday after missing two practice days. Tight end Dennis Pitta said he’d be surprised if Flacco didn’t play Sunday. Pitta said, “He didn’t look like he was in pain. It should be the same old Joe” … Bills running back LeSean McCoy ( hamstring), says he was “real limited” in practice Friday and is listed as questionable. “The biggest thing is seeing how I feel Sunday.”