The NFL has handed out its first fine of the regular season, and it wasn’t for a vicious helmet to helmet hit. Charles Woodson, cornerback for the Green Bay Packers has been fined $10,000 by the league for “throwing a punch” at Saints’ tight end David Thomas during last Thursday’s opening game.
Let’s get a few things straight here. Yes, Woodson “threw a punch”…but he also landed it! He said that he felt Thomas was “holding me a little longer than I wanted”…I’m sorry, he landed a punch! The only thing worse than the miniscule fine (Woodson makes millions of dollars a year) is that it happened right in front of a referee. Had the punch been hidden (middle of a pile) I can understand the small punishment, but the referee in question immediately threw his flag and assessed a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. In all my years of watching football (high school, college and pro), I have never seen a player throw a punch and be allowed to stay in the game…especially one that was right in front of the official and that was penalized. This doesn’t make any sense to me.
Many (especially Green Bay fans and others who were betting jellybeans on the game) would argue that Drew Brees threw for 419 yards and three TDs with Woodson in the game, but the fact of the matter is, the removal of Woodson from the game in the third quarter would have degraded the Packers’ defense. Instead of having their number one and two cornerbacks on the field for every play, they would have had numbers two and three playing, with other lower players on the depth chart filling in as the nickel back on passing downs….which was just about every play. A quarterback doesn’t pass for 419 yards when his team is running the ball a lot.
I’m not saying that the Saints would have definitely won that game, but their chances would have been significantly higher had Woodson been correctly tossed.
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