NFL Fines

Late last week, Pittsburgh Steelers star receiver Antonio Brown received a fine of $24,309 for twerking in the endzone after scoring against Kansas City in the Steelers' 43-14 victory over the Chiefs. Among other comments denouncing the fine, Brown said:

"I don't think excessive celebrating should cost more than hitting guys in the helmet -- $24,000 for a guy scoring touchdowns and having fun is more than a guy getting hit in the head, targeting with the helmet."

Of course, it's clear that twerking unexpectedly in front of a national audience is different than just "having fun," and I don't condone Brown's behavior. His point, however, is an important one. Part of mending the concussion crisis in football is not just placing in rules that disallow deliberate hits to the head of defenseless players, but also making sure that players are strongly incentivized to not break these rules.

Antonio Brown brings in a Touchdown against Kansas City

Last month, I posted about the penalized hit that Darian Stewart laid on the helmet of Panther's quarterback Cam Newton (who is currently out with a concussion suffered from a different hit). Stewart was fined only $18,231 for the hit, about 25% less than the fine given to Brown.

Obviously there's already a system of penalties, fines, and suspensions that the NFL uses to punish players who commit various violations of the game's rules. But if the NFL really wants to show that it is attempting to crack down on hits to the head in the game, these deterrents must be significantly larger than those of other penalties. If Stewart, for example, was forced to sit out for a couple games, rather than pay fine that amounts to a drop in the bucket of a multi-million dollar NFL contract. Unless players are truly incentivized not to break the rules surrounding head injuries, there is no effective way of helping prevent these hits from occurring.