Understandably Livid After $43,000 Fine, Breece Hall Asks if the NFL Wants Him to Just Get Hit & do Nothing

Nidhi | 10/12/2023
Understandably Livid After $43,000 Fine, Breece Hall Asks if the NFL Wants Him to Just Get Hit & do Nothing

In another saga of excessive fines this season, Jets’ RB Breece Hall has been slapped with a substantial fine. The hefty fine of $43,000 has been reported as the largest fine of the week and was announced for a play that wasn’t even flagged during the game.

In the opening moments of last Sunday’s defeat against the Falcons, Hall received a brief pass over the middle, gaining 7 yards. While sprinting towards the sideline, he seemingly dipped both his upper body and helmet, resulting in a helmet-to-helmet collision with Atlanta cornerback A.J. Terrell, who also attempted a low tackle.

Terell suffered a concussion due to the play. While the play did not elicit a flag throw during the game, the league retroactively deemed the play unnecessary roughness by Hall. The RB was decidedly not happy with this call and let his feelings at being fined known publically. He took to X, previously Twitter, to react to the news of him getting fined and said, “I’m supposed to just let him hit me?“

In another reaction to a video of the play that led him to be fined, “I’ll just let him dive at my knees next time I guess?” Hall wrote in a separate post on X, adding an emoji with a monocle, “not like I tore my ACL or anything lol,” suggesting that the collision was a result of him trying to protect himself and not an active hit.

Is the NFL Becoming Too Soft?

This season has become notorious for what has been deemed as unnecessary and unwarranted fines. From fans to analysts, many NFL enthusiasts believe that the league has gone soft and is introducing way too many preventative rules, that have transformed the traditionally physically challenging game to “flag football.” Many fans sided with Breece on this issue as they took to the comments to support him:

One fan pointed to the extravagant fine amount and accused the league of “stealing” from Hall

Even former players have come forward to talk about the changes they are seeing in the league today. Most significantly, NFL GOAT Tom Brady joined the array of football enthusiasts who want to see big hits return to the field. In a chat with the Buccaneers, Brady came out in defense of the defensive players. The future HoFer said,

 “…now, every hard hit is a penalty on the defense. So I feel like they penalize defensive players for offensive mistakes…The only thing they’re gonna do, they’re actually gonna blame the defensive player for making a good, solid hit.”

Brady joined the ranks of fans lamenting the “good ol’ days” of football, however, the league has been moving toward creating a more safe environment for players in a sport that sees gruesome, and career-ending injuries. On top of that, the league is also planning an expansion and trying to make the game-viewing experience more children and family-friendly. It remains to be seen whether the backlash will affect the league’s decisions.
Post Edited By: Nidhi
Atlanta Falcons Breece Hall New York Jets Tampa Bay Bucaneers Tom Brady

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Nidhi

Nidhi is an NFL Editor for The SportsRush. Her interest in NFL began with 'The Blindside' and has been working as an NFL journalist for the past year. As an athlete herself, she uses her personal experience to cover sports immaculately. She is a graduate of English Literature and when not doing deep dives into Mahomes' latest family drama, she inhales books on her kindle like nobody's business. She is proud that she recognised Travis Kelce's charm (like many other NFL fangirls) way before Taylor Swift did, and is waiting with bated breath for the new album to drop.

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