Geathers to be fined

[Bengalbob]

Bengals Player Could Get Fined For Controversial Hit

LAST UPDATE: 9/13/2006 7:28:13 AM

A Bengals player will likely end up having to pay for a controversial hit during Sunday's game.

A league spokesman says that defensive end Robert Geathers will be fined for his hit against Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Trent Green. The hit put Green in the hospital, and completely erased his memory of the collision.

Green was released from the hospital Tuesday and, according to ESPN, will miss at least two weeks.

There's no word on the specifics of the fine placed on Geathers, except that it will come down on Friday.

http://www.wkrc.com/news/local/story.aspx?...79-04DAD0B4C989

[TippCityRick]

As long as there is no suspension we move on. It's unfortunate that Geathers will have to pay for Green's stupidity, but with the national outcry it does seem inevitable. Maybe, if Green is such a good guy, he'll look at the tape and pay the fine himself!

[derekshank]

I've changed my mind on this. I was trying to view it as an unbiased fan, and how I would feel if it was Palmer who got hurt... so I was at first okay with him getting a fine.

Now, after nearly every unbiased analyst has argued the hit was clean, and especially those who played the game, and understand the speed say that Green should have gone down earlier, I'm kinda upset about the fine.

If he gets fined, he'll move on... no real harm done. But it doesn't feel like justice to me. Had Green merely been dazed, and was able to come back in the game, there would be no fine.

If you fine players because of the severity of injury, regardless of whether the hit was clean or not... where was Kimo's fine? Where was LT's fine for Theisman? Players get hurt. Green is a class act... so it makes it seem worse... but you can't fine a player when it's not obvious that the hit was dirty. There is just way too much going on in that play to be sure it was a "cheap shot."

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

I've changed my mind on this. I was trying to view it as an unbiased fan, and how I would feel if it was Palmer who got hurt... so I was at first okay with him getting a fine.

Now, after nearly every unbiased analyst has argued the hit was clean, and especially those who played the game, and understand the speed say that Green should have gone down earlier, I'm kinda upset about the fine.

If he gets fined, he'll move on... no real harm done. But it doesn't feel like justice to me. Had Green merely been dazed, and was able to come back in the game, there would be no fine.

If you fine players because of the severity of injury, regardless of whether the hit was clean or not... where was Kimo's fine? Where was LT's fine for Theisman? Players get hurt. Green is a class act... so it makes it seem worse... but you can't fine a player when it's not obvious that the hit was dirty. There is just way too much going on in that play to be sure it was a "cheap shot."

Exactly. What it comes down to is the league bowing to an annoying squaky-wheel owner. You know what? F*** him. Green slid too late and paid the price. Geathers has no history of cheap shots. Just because something bad happened doesn't mean its someone's fault.

Maybe the new commissioner should have some balls and tell the Chiefs that life sucks, but move on...

[AMC]

Fine? Big deal....

[Dadraftnick]

Its time to admit it Geathers made a major mistake on that hit HE WAS NOT FROM PITTSBURGH !

When Kimo reaches up and grabs and on purpose twists Carsons leg to take him out of the game its OK.

I guess it was part of the package when you buy off the refs for the Super Bowl and Playoffs they throw in coverage from fines and penalties.

[SkinneymulleT]

BS!

[duus]

Fine?

Big deal. Pay it, play the next week, win the division, go to the playoffs, win the Super Bowl.

Fine?

Who cares?

[oldschooler]

Sorry, I didn`t see this thread.

By fining him, the NFL is saying he did something wrong, and it was

unavoidable.

I think it`s BS. Because he did nothing wrong, and it was unavoidable

on his part...

[derekshank]

The only thing that would really bother me about a fine is if it causes Geathers to hesitate when he's getting ready to hit a QB. I doubt he'll be thinking about a fine when he's running after Big Ben... but you never know.

If he honestly knows he did nothing wrong, a fine could cause him to be overly cautious, and effect him impact negatively.

Again... I doubt this will happen, but the fine sends him a message to be careful with QB's, and for my part, I hope he doesn't take it too seriously. I don't want to see any QB's get hurt... but I also don't want to see him take it easy on a QB, and have it bite us in the ass.

[AGrizzlyBaer]

i wonder if the team will pay it for him

[Jonboat]

Oh well... I suppose the new commish is going to use it as an example to show he's going to protect the QB , good oppurtunity to show there's a new sheriff in town.

It would be good to see the team stand behind Geathers by paying the fine for him.

[Tasher]

Anybody got ESPN Insider? Mort has a blog entry up titled "No Fine for Geathers?"

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index...mortensen_chris

??

excerpt that is readable...

No fine for Geathers?posted: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 | Print Entry

Upon further review, Kansas City Chiefs GM Carl Peterson probably won't be happy with what he hears out of the league office later today. It's highly unlikely that Bengals defensive end Robert Geathers will be fined for his hit on Chiefs quarterback Trent Green, who was released from the hospital two days after suffering a severe concussion.

A review of the game tape and the actual rule appears to have cleared Geathers from wrongdoing.

The various angles do confirm that Geathers was being blocked in the back by Chiefs receiver Eddie Kennison and the contact forced him in a downward momentum into Green.

To continue reading this article you must be an Insider.

[membengal]

In the locked off portion, Mort notes that even without the push in the back, Geathers' hit appears ok. First, he notes that people are misunderstanding the qb protection rule on slides, it protects you once you have slid, not as you are going into the slide. Second, he notes, as we all know, that Green had scrambled twice previously on that drive for first downs.

So, that's the extra stuff.

We'll see.

I still don't think he should be fined.

[oldschooler]

Here you can see the obvious contact.

and here you can see the obvious push.

[ArmyBengal]

Trent Green is nothing but class and I wish him well. In regards to the rest of this, I really don't give a sh*t anymore. Geathers will be ok and the team moves forward. I think it's an absolute BS decision on the part of a brand new Commish trying to lay down the law regradless of how misplaced his intentions... If it happens at all.

WHODEY !!!

[Tasher]

Trent Green is nothing but class and I wish him well. In regards to the rest of this, I really don't give a sh*t anymore. Geathers will be ok and the team moves forward. I think it's an absolute BS decision on the part of a brand new Commish trying to lay down the law regradless of how misplaced his intentions... If it happens at all.

WHODEY !!!

AB, did you read the part that Mort reported that RG will NOT be fined?

[oldschooler]

Someone from my home board, that`s an ESPN Insider posted the rest of that from Mort...

Even without being pushed, Geathers may have gotten a pass. The quarterback protection rule on a scramble does not go into effect until the quarterback is down -- not when he starts his slide, as many have said. (Also noted is that Green already had run for a couple of first downs).

[Jonboat]

Also noticed the headline on the original post said COULD be fined then the article says he's LIKELY to be fined then cites a league source as saying he WILL be fined. HUH ??

[Bengalbob]

In the locked off portion, Mort notes that even without the push in the back, Geathers' hit appears ok. First, he notes that people are misunderstanding the qb protection rule on slides, it protects you once you have slid, not as you are going into the slide. Second, he notes, as we all know, that Green had scrambled twice previously on that drive for first downs.

So, that's the extra stuff.

We'll see.

I still don't think he should be fined.

Does anyone know where to read the actual slide related rule? I went to NFL.com, but it has what appears to be rule summaries and doesn't include anything about QB sliding.

[Tasher]

I will definitely be watching NFL Total Access tonight for the Offical Review section with Pereira to see if this is discused...

[Kazkal]

Fine? Big deal....

big deal for jumpy he isen't the highest payed player

[agreen_112]

Here you can see the obvious contact.

and here you can see the obvious push.

By the looks of these pics, maybe the fine did justify what could have possibly been avoided. There's a good 4-5 yards between green and geathers in the first pic, showing green going into a slidding motion, and I believe that Geathers at that point had every intention of smearing Green. Geathers may have been able to "let up" a little, although kennison's blocking in the back (which didn't get called) also added to the velocity of the hit. If the hit would have been on Palmer I'm sure that we would be just as pissed and would want some course of action to take place, whether it be a fine or suspension. I can't imagine a suspension coming out of a late hit but you never know. The quarterback is the most important guy on the field and he needs to be protected as much as possible, it's better for the game. Yeah it's exciting as hell to see a big hit on the QB, but it's gotta be 100% clean in my book. When Thurman went low on Big Ben I was mad as hell at him and Knew at that point what goes around comes around, especially when you play the "dirty" Steelers twice a year.

This whole thing though is really bulls**t b/c when Kimo went low on Palmer he should have got penalized. This just makes me believe even more that your guys from the Big cities (New York, Boston, Philly, Los Angelos, and Chicago) absolutely hate cincinnati, mostly b/c of the Reds beating New York and Boston all those years.

[ArmyBengal]

When Thurman went low on Big Ben I was mad as hell at him

You should have been mad as hell at the person who tripped him into Big Ben, but I get what you are saying here...

WHODEY !!!

[derekshank]

Here you can see the obvious contact.

and here you can see the obvious push.

By the looks of these pics, maybe the fine did justify what could have possibly been avoided. There's a good 4-5 yards between green and geathers in the first pic, showing green going into a slidding motion, and I believe that Geathers at that point had every intention of smearing Green. Geathers may have been able to "let up" a little, although kennison's blocking in the back (which didn't get called) also added to the velocity of the hit. If the hit would have been on Palmer I'm sure that we would be just as pissed and would want some course of action to take place, whether it be a fine or suspension. I can't imagine a suspension coming out of a late hit but you never know. The quarterback is the most important guy on the field and he needs to be protected as much as possible, it's better for the game. Yeah it's exciting as hell to see a big hit on the QB, but it's gotta be 100% clean in my book. When Thurman went low on Big Ben I was mad as hell at him and Knew at that point what goes around comes around, especially when you play the "dirty" Steelers twice a year.

This whole thing though is really bulls**t b/c when Kimo went low on Palmer he should have got penalized. This just makes me believe even more that your guys from the Big cities (New York, Boston, Philly, Los Angelos, and Chicago) absolutely hate cincinnati, mostly b/c of the Reds beating New York and Boston all those years.

I don't know... if you're going based on those pictures, you see Geathers knee almost touching the ground after he was pushed. That's hardly the best way to gain velocity to smear a QB. If anything, you would have to say he was trying to go down to avoid helmet to helmet contact.

I do think he was trying to hit Green a little bit... just to give him a reminder not to scramble for those extra yards... but to say the hit was malicious is complete conjecture. I don't think you can fine a guy based on conjecture.