It doesn’t take much to get fined in the NFL today; one slip of the tongue here, a strongly-worded criticism of an official there and Roger Goodell will tack a fine on you.
Carolina Panthers receiver Steve Smith doesn’t care about fines, and he’s willing to pay any amount just to get his opinion out, said Yahoo! Sports
“To be honest, I make enough money where if Roger wants to fine me he can,” Smith said.
His rant is over Sunday’s game at Arizona where he believed that the Cardinals’ secondary got away with grabbing him.
“When I dove for the first down (and) he was standing right there,” Smith said. “He didn’t even acknowledge — he received a check that day and I hope he feels good. He was terrible. He was garbage.”
Cardinals cornerback, Patrick Preston, played a tight and physical defense against the veteran receiverùmore than what Smith found acceptable.
Smith felt that penalties were doled out unfairly. He explained that Arizona’s secondary was “hugging” and “leg-humping” him, and no flag was thrown.
”It was pass interference in Mexico, Europe, rugby – in pretty much every other sport but in Arizona (on Sunday),” Smith said.
However, when he pushed off, he got the infamous whistle blow.
Smith asked the referee that was closest about the call, but didn’t get the answer he wanted.
“He told me on my route (that) I felt like I got held, where (Peterson) had the back of my jersey and used that to slingshot his way through and bat the ball down,” Smith explained.
“He grabbed my jersey, he saw it, but he didn’t think it was enough that changed the course of the route,” Smith said to the Charlotte Observer.
With Smith’s strongly-worded criticism of an NFL official, the question isn’t if he gets fined, it’s when and how much.