Baltimore Ravens Jameel McClain’s fine for helmet hit halved to $20,000 after appeal
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Jameel McClain has had his $40,000 fine reduced to $20,000 after an appeal. He was fined by the National Football League (NFL) for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Heath Miller, tight end for Pittsburgh Steelers.
A local newspaper published the story about the fine reduction. The newspaper source said that the heavy fine is about 8 per cent of McClain’s $470,000 salary. If you take the fine and taxes away from McClain’s salary, he played the final four games of the
2010 season for free. That includes the Wild Card round of the playoffs and the American Football Conference (AFC) Divisional Game.
Even though the League is putting the pressure on players who perform “potentially dangerous hits,” McClain did not draw a penalty on his hit to Miller. On the play in question, McClain hit Miller on the helmet, causing his head and neck to bend backwards
during the second half of the Ravens’ loss to the Steelers, 13-10.
Miller remained on the field, whether due to unconsciousness or not is unclear, before being assisted off. Miller did not come back to play in that game. Even before the game was over, a couple of officials for the NFL said that McClain should have been
penalised on the play. He was fined the next day, 5 December, 2010.
“Basically what it is, it’s a man going to try to make a play,” McClain told the newspaper in December. “I was within the strike zone. I was going the way that I was taught to proceed in the game throughout my whole life. And if I let off on that play and
he catches the ball and possibly streaks down the field for 50 yards, it’s a different story we’re talking about.”
McClain just completed his third season with the Ravens after being drafted by them in the 2009 NFL Draft. In his rookie season, McClain played in all 16 games of the season but started none. He accumulated 16 tackles and 2.5 sacks in 2008. In his second
season with the team, he participated in all 16 games but started only one and had 30 tackles. In 2010, McClain started 15 of the 16 games that he played in and racked up 71 tackles, one sack and two passes deflected.
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