Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu’s appeals against NFL fine over mobile phone use accepted
Finally, three months after Pittsburgh Steelers' safety, Troy Polamalu, was fined by the National Football League (NFL) office for using his mobile phone on the sideline during a game, he has won his appeal against the penalty.
Reports in some sections of the media have quoted unidentified league sources disclosing that the player has been notified of overturning his $10,000 fine over the alleged violation of the NFL rules, governing the use of electronic communication gadgets
on the sideline while playing a game.
All communication equipment including mobile phones, PDAs and other such devices are completely prohibited to players during a game.
The rules come into effect before start of each game and remain enforced until the end of it.
Polamalu was spotted using his mobile phone, while talking to someone during the Steelers' game against the Jacksonville Jaguars on October 16, 2011.
The league office fined the player for violation of its rules after a hearing at the end of the game and the player appealed against it.
His appeal against the NFL office was accepted and consequently, the penalty was overruled along with being told of the decision on Thursday.
The safety maintained in the appeal that he was talking to his wife on the phone apparently to confirm her of his fitness and that he was not facing any health or injury problems on the field.
Polamalu added that he needed to alert his wife that he was safe and fit and continued playing his game without any problems.
League rules are reported to have an exception in certain cases and the Polamalu issue was falling on the same lines, therefore being granted the benefit and compensation against the imposition of the penalty.
Steelers’ coach, Mike Tomlin, had spoken in the favour of the player, stating that since it was a matter of his safety and security and his family needed to be updated about it, he should not have been fined for the use of his phone which helped the player’s
case and acceptance of his appeal.
Polamalu is one of the few Steelers’ players who remained prone to injury problems more frequently.
His injury worries were aggravated in the middle of the 2011 NFL regular season and after an amount of uncertainty, he was able to play the Jaguars' game in October.
Along with his teammates and team management, his family became concerned about his health issues.
At one point he stood chances of being ruled out of the side for rest of the season due to a concussion injury.
Troy Polamalu at the end managed to improve and continued playing until end of the season. His presence proved to be instrumental in his team's wins.
Pittsburgh Steelers have reached the playoff round but lost their wild-card game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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