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The San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals faced a handful of fines for this past week's contest, but Anquan Boldin was not one of those players fined.
Boldin received a personal foul when he went over and gave Tyrann Mathieu a shove late in the game. Kendall Hunter scored a touchdown, and Mathieu tackled him in the endzone. Mathieu claimed he did not hear the whistle, but he was flagged on the play, and subsequently received a $7,875 fine, per a Cardinals beat writer (MM reporting it as $10,000). Boldin was not fined for defending his teammate.
This is not a surprise given the NFL's position following Joe Staley's scuffle with Clay Matthews in Week 1. Matthews tackled Colin Kaepernick late, and Staley immediately got in Matthews' face. The two pushed and shoved each other, with flags flying.
It makes the flags seem all the more ridiculous since it is defending a teammate from an initial bad hit. You would think the NFL would train referees to understand this. I get the notion that you don't want subjectivity in your referees, but sometimes these penalties will cost the team doing the defending. In the 49ers instances, nothing came of it. The 49ers scored a touchdown after Staley's penalty, and Boldin's penalty was part of offsetting penalties after the touchdown score. That being said, at some point it could very well cost the team.
Earlier this week we leaned that Alex Boone was fined $7,875, and Alameda Ta'amu received a $10,000 fine. Anthony Davis was fined $15,750 for a clip, and Darnell Dockett was fined $7,875 for a late hit.