Earlier this afternoon, MDS pointed out that Chargers safety Eric Weddle will be making a $7,500 donation to the Human Fund for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Giants tight end Kevin Boss.
But Weddle’s agent says that third-year player will be appealing the fine.
“Eric’s helmet did not contact Boss’ helmet initially and he actually let up on the play and contacted him shoulder-first,” agent David Canter told us via e-mail. "[Weddle] never hit him with any intent to harm nor did he launch himself into Kevin. We’ve appealed the fine and are hopeful after carefully reviewing the tape that the league will rescind the fine.”
But it likely won’t be easy to prevail. Currently, all NFL-imposed player discipline is appealed to the league office. And since the league office issued the discipline, the league office isn’t likely to overturn it.
There’s a belief in some circles that the league has gone fine-happy this year in order to demonstrate the value of a decision by the owners to refer the appeals to an outside arbitrator as part of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. Such a move would give guys like Weddle more hope in the future. For now though, it won’t help Weddle very much at all.