NFL commits grand larceny on 49ers DE Justin Smith
by David Fucillo on Oct 2, 2009 4:36 PM PDT
in San Francisco 49ers News
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PrintThe NFL announced they fined 49ers DE Justin Smith $5,000 for his late hit on Vikings QB Brett Favre. For those that don't recall, at the 6:13 mark of the second quarter, Brett Favre dropped back to pass and as he let go of the pass, Justin Smith tackled him. The ref subsequently called Smith for unnecessary roughness. In the past this would appear to not even have been a penalty. However, the introduction of the Tom Brady rule regarding low tackles is what got Smith.
Smith is appealing the fine because he believes he hit Favre above the knee. He went so far as to say he reviewed the film to confirm his suspicion. I just went back and reviewed my DVR'd version of the game and I definitely agree with Smith. I can understand the ref thinking the hit was too low because it was in the midst of the action and it's not easy to see everything going on. However, in fining Smith I'd like to think the league went back to the tape and looked at the specific play. Of course, if they did in fact review the tape, they apparently think the hit was too low and are unlikely to review it. Throw in that this was Brett Favre and you've got this sometimes ridiculous rule in place, and Smith will probably not win his appeal, and thus be $5,000 lighter in the wallet.
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Makes you wonder if they would have fined Justin if he had made the same tackle on Tavaris Jackson. As much as I hate Favre, he certainly drives up general public interest in the NFL and I’m sure the league will try their hardest to protect him.
+1
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing"
by Jeff_Fuller_49 on Oct 2, 2009 10:03 PM PDT up reply actions
Funny
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing"
by Jeff_Fuller_49 on Oct 2, 2009 10:04 PM PDT up reply actions
Smith fine
Upon appeal it’ll go away. Officials haven’t been great so far – worst was the amateurs in AZ.
Agree 100% with that assessment.
The fine will probably just dissapear. I think what is more disturbing how evident the playcalling by the Ref’s was so blatently one sided. The Vik’s were holding in the Defensive Backfield ALL GAME LONG. Not one call for pass interference or even holding. It was so lopsided that even the National Comentator clowns were laughing about it. The NFL has a marketing problem if the league is percieved to be fixed or there is unfairness going on. The NBA already has this problem big time, so it would be good for the league to really start watching tape on the players AND OFFICIALS to make sure that everyone is doing their job. The TAUNTING call against Shantee Spencer was Horrid !! He was moving away from the supposed victum, and was making the no completion sign. Not the throat slashing sign, not the middle finger, just the no competion sign. WHY is that a penalty??
One thing is for sure. We were one pass defense away from a 3 – 0 start!! The Niners have played 2 really good teams and have come out 1 – 1. They need to come out and lower the BOOM on the Lambs. They need to let Shawn Hill cut loose passing and havea 300 + YARDS PASSING GAME !! The coaching staff needs to remind the players that they are trusted and wont be mistrusted when the game is on the line next time. Hill willl have to step up now with Frank injured. Perfect opportunity for Hill to step into the limelight and do his thing. When Hill has been given chances under durress, he has come thru every time just about.
The Niners need to win by double digits against the Lambs, because the game against the Falcons was gonna be tough even WITH Gore. They need to NOT OVERLOOK the Lambs, and beat the Buzzards going into the BYE because after the BYE its:
AT TEXANS – WINNABLE
AT INDY – REAL TOUGH GAME
TITANS – AT HOME IS WINNABLE
BEARS – TOUGH WIN AT HOME
AT PACKERS – MIGHT BE ASKING TOO MUCH FOR A WIN
JAGUARS – WINNABLE AT HOME
AT SEAHAWKS – THEY WILL BE LOOKING FOR REVENGE OR STARVING FOR THE WIN
CARDINALS – THEY WILL BE LOOKING FOR BLOOD.
AT EAGLES – MIGHT BE ASKING TOO MUCH BUT WHO KNOWS
LIONS – SHOULD WIN BUT WHO KNOWS
AT LAMBS – SHOULD BE A LAUGHER. HOPE WE CLINCH BY THEN.
Thats one winnable road game and then a very tough one and then 2 tough home games. The way this season is shaping up, this thing could go right down to the wire. I dont think the Seahags have the horses to stay in the race. The Silence of the Lambs is deafining. That leaves the Red Birds to compete with us in the NFC Worst. Their schedule looks like:
HOUSTON – CARDS COULD WIN
AT SEATTLE – CARDS COULD WIN
AT GIANTS – CARDS LOSS
CAROLINA – CARDS COULD WIN
AT CHICAGO – CARDS COULD WIN
SEATTLE – JUST DONT SEE THE SEAHAGS MATCHING UP
AT LAMBS – THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS IS DEAFENING
AT TITANS – CARDS COULD WIN
MINNESOTA – CARDS COULD LOSE
AT SAN FRAN – COULD DECIDE THE WEST
AT DETROIT MIGHT START SECOND STRING
LAMBS SEE ABOVE
PACKERS CARDS COULD LOSE
So both teams have easy and hard games. I dont thing either team gets a break with their schedule. I think the Cards have a slightly tougher schedule opponent wise but the Niner’s play more good teams on the road where it’s tougher to win.
Need to get Gore healthy. Need to get the Wide Receiver situation resolved. Need to make sure not to leave Mark Roman on an island. Need to pass the ball more and keep playing the great defense. I really think we can do this thing. A playoff run is becoming a faint hope !
Another year, another chance to hope for the team !!
I’m surprised every player that has hit Favre this year hasn’t been fined.
"It ain't over till it's over." - Yogi Berra
+1 for the headline
Shouldn’t the league fine Steve Hutchinson too? He got ran over by Justin Smith on that play and decided to take Smith on the ground with him.
BTW, Sando also agrees . . .
Upon review of the play
The flag even came late, giving the impression that the ref either saw the very end of the play or saw Favre on the ground and Smith on or near his legs. Meaning this ref did the one thing I hate most about bad officiating: he called what he assumed happened instead of what he saw happen.
You gotta bring ass to get ass.
How long
Before fans start raising money to lessen the impact of fines? I know I would contribute if coach Sing had dropped some knowledge on those clueless refs sunday.
49er 'til I die! (if they don't kill me first)
by LA49er on Oct 2, 2009 5:41 PM PDT via mobile reply actions
personally, I like it
You would have to come up with some way of being trustworthy enough for other people to send you cash for the collection pot and some of working out PR enough so that people believe there will actually work.
But in a situation like this, it would be pretty awesome if the NFL fines Smith $5,000 for hitting Brett Favre so the SF fans send Smith a check for $10,000 for getting fined. You bet something like that would make the news.
sort of a big (SITE DECORUM) YOU from the fans to the NFL’S bias
"We’ll see them again in the playoffs." - Mike Singletary, right after the Week 3 Minnesota game
The Brady Rule
The Favre Interpretation.
by Bob In Beaverton on Oct 2, 2009 5:42 PM PDT reply actions 4 recs
+2
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing"
by Jeff_Fuller_49 on Oct 2, 2009 10:04 PM PDT up reply actions
Where is the line regarding fan enjoyment when it comes to protecting star offensive players? What’s worse for the game, having a top QB hurt or having to watch a ridiculous nerfed version of football every single game?
IMO, this is just another example of why the NFL is getting so hard to like these days.
BLING BLING
Does anyone have a clip of that entire play?
"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, either way, YOU'RE RIGHT !"
THEFT !!!!!!!!
Pure and simple theft. The retard refs get it wrong and the league reviews the tape and fines him anyway?? Pure and Simple B.S. The call against Shantee Spencer for Taunting was a load of horse shite as well. The refs were clearly calling the entire game one sided. I don’t recall even one call go the Niners way. I DO remember seeing a lot of holding calls against the Vik’s offensive line and defenisive backs go UNCALLED. Clearly one sided officiating. B U T it is not the reason we lost the game. The reason we lost the game is because our coaching staff treated Farve like any other average joe QB. They ran the ball to run out the clock and gave one of the greatest closers to ever play the game 2TWO2 shots at a miracle comeback. That was 2 too many.
Normally running the ball 3 times and punting would be acceptable and we would have won the game. Even the second GIFT, the way our defense was playing (little did we know they were completly gassed the second time) seemed to indicate that a conservative approach was required and that they would make the Vik’s use up all their time outs and the game would be over…. Usually…. But Farve is UN-Usual. he was able to move the ball with no time outs, and the Niners went into the “PREVENT WIN DEFENSE”. That was the combonation of errors that caused the loss. The Niner’s should have given Hill an opportunity to Seal the Deal on his own. The coaches took the win away from Hill and gave it to the Vik’s. Hill makes a pass in the flat away from the brick wall dead center of the Vik’s VERY TIRED DEFEBSE too ANYONE and they win the game.
Where was the TAZER? Where was the killer instinct? How about a pitchout? A N Y T H I N G but run into the TEETH of the defense and go 3 and out. I R E A L L Y hope that Singletary and Raye learned something from this debacle. You can pin the loss on the coaching staff on this one. Singletary should have come out and taken the blame immediatly after the game in stead of claiming that the coarse of action was the correct one and they took it. In truth, Hill was having a G R E A T second half. NO interceptions the whole game. WHY would you think he would throw one on possibly the last drive of the game.
In truth, this is about the staff NOT TRUSTING Hill to come thru. It is an inditment of Hill as a player and Game Manager. How about a rollout? How about trusting your QB? They would not have even been in the game had it not been for Hill’s Heroics, yet when the game was really on the line, SIngletary and Raye F L I N C H E D! If you were to put a few beers into Hill and ask him honestly what he and the rest of the team wanted to do in that situation, you most certainly would not get the answer, “run 3 times into a brick wall and punt”.
They wanted to win it outright by doing what needed to be done. Singletary puckered. He froze. T W I C E. They should have put the ball into Hill’s hands and allow their Game Manager to win the game. It is disturbing to me how little confidence the coaching staff has in Hill’s abilities. He’s no Farve by any stretch of the imagination, but he can make a 5 yard out pass. ONE first down. That is the difference between being 3-0 and now being 2-1. If there is A N Y letdown in the LAMBS game, I will be very scared about this team doing an about face and start heading in the wrong direction again.
We need to go out and Blow out the Lambs. Hill needs to be allowed to AIR IT OUT against the Lambs. Sure, not turning the ball over is key to the Niners overall plan. But you cant be so afraid not to lose that you are too scared to win. They had T W O shots at getting a first down to seal the deal. The very next time this situation happends again, and in football it happends every weekend just about, the next time better be a different answer or the team will stop beliving in Raye and Singletary. Now that Brandon Jones is back and Hill is back, perhaps the coach will call plays to throw the ball to wide R E C E I V E R S.
Another year, another chance to hope for the team !!
The refs did have a BS call against the Vikings in a QB roughing call. The Vikings player barely brushed his hand against Shaun Hill’s face mask and they called it. However, the calls/non-calls against the 49ers really hurt. Lots of times I thought I saw offsides but no whistle….
by Badly Browned on Oct 2, 2009 10:19 PM PDT up reply actions
Not only was it a bad call in the game but now this? I know they are trying to protect the quarterback but we are playing football here. Pretty soon you’re gonna see the quarterback wearing flags around his waist…
F* the NFL
Go Niners!
We just traded who for who?!
by BawLa on Oct 2, 2009 10:16 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs
+1 for flags !!
Maybe they should let them wear the “RED” dont hit me jerseys that they wear in pratice in the games! That way everyone knows when to hold up and keep those precious throwing machines going without major damage ! It is getting absurd the rules protecting the QB. the interpretation of the rule is different every down let alone every game. NO ONE knows what is ok and what is a personal foul anymore, The league’s reactionary rule creation is causing more problems than they solve. Besides, more throwing machines come out of college every year. Any one team cant keep the same team going on forever and ever like a dynasty or something.
Another year, another chance to hope for the team !!
Title is fitting.
That was one of the worst flags I’ve ever seen – to have a fine on top of that is just sickening.
If that wrap-and-drag tackle can seriously be interpreted as a dirty play, then they should just go ahead and write it into the rulebooks that quarterbacks cannot be tackled behind the line of scrimmage.
My pessimism goes to the point of suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists.
What about the taunting call on Spencer?
This just in:
CBs cannot signal incomplete when they break up a pass.
What we've got here is a failure to communicate.
by SportsChicken on Oct 2, 2009 10:50 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs
That one pissed me off too !!
And if you go back and watch the play, you will see he is backing away from the player he supposedly taunted. He was clearly far enough away that he probably didn’t even HEAR SPENCER! I hate when ref’s decide to get some face time on the sports channel news loop at the expense of my team. I was even angry when the Vikes got called for the BS roughing the passer call for knocking down Hill. The funny thing is these DEFENSIVE players have been taught to hit the QB from the crib! How are they now gonna pass rules to distract them from their main purpose in life. Every Sunday for a few hours, they run around looking for the dude with the ball and hit him really hard! That is gonna be the QB sometimes. Is the QB even concidered one of the 11 players on the field anymore?? Maybe they should let the QB’s wear the RED “Please dont hurt me” jerseys from TRAINING CAMP pratices on durring the friggin games. Maybe then these nonsense calls on Defensive Linemen will go away and the league will revert back to REAL football where people get hurt, and people make great plays, and people get the snot knocked outta them That is the sport I believe we are all getting up early on a Sunday to watch. I like that kind of football. Not the please dont hurt me flag football simulation crap…
Another year, another chance to hope for the team !!
That
was a failed 3rd down stop that ended up keeping our D on the field too, if I do recall.
Chris Cohan- YOU'RE FIRED!
Nice, Favre blocks Willis? yea right
I remember that dangerous block Favre had on Willis. Willis respected him in the game and gave him a hand to pick him up, but I’m not sure he knew it was him that just chop blocked him. Well anyway here are some comments from Willis about that block. Thats right, I agree what Willis says, don’t give any respect to Favre for that after-the-play block. Sometimes you like to see QB’s make those kind of efforts but that was just showing off and would have made Favre look better if he would have not done that.
There was a preseason block
that Favre put on someone which was low and blind-sided (can’t remember against who… carolina?) and everyone was talking about how stupid he was… I’d bet no one would be applauding favre for his grit and toughness from blocking Willis had we won the game. If anything, people might be piling on about how it was a dumb move.
Chris Cohan- YOU'RE FIRED!
What really gets me is how much they protect the QB and the Kickers, but then when they go out and commit penalties, they don’t call it. You see it all the time with kickers , they cant be touched at all before their leg comes down but then can go down the field and bash a returner however they feel. I though this game was a brutal man vs man combat sport.
Here’s a couple links regardign the rules:
http:// http://www.nfl.com/rulebook/digestofrules
And just for fun:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/144377-nfl-adopts-new-rules-quarterbacks-to-wear-dresses
Judgment day is coming!
Official Rule
Do you guys know what the official rule says?
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