NFL quarterbacks can be thankful today that the league office is vigorously protecting them, but defensive players like Titans defensive end William Hayes don’t like it.
Hayes was fined $15,000 for a hit on Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, and he says he doesn’t get what he did wrong.
“They hit me over the head with a mean fine,” Hayes told Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean. “It was very surprising. They said it wasn’t a late hit, that I distributed too much body weight to the quarterback. I don’t understand. I hit him and I fell off to the side of him.”
NFL fines are designed to get players to change the way they hit, but Hayes says that won’t happen.
“I don’t really want to take an approach where I want to play softer,” he said, “because then there might be a case where the quarterback pump-fakes and I pull off instead of going after him. I want to get in contact with the league and get a better understanding of the rule.”
At the moment, Hayes is like a lot of defensive players in that he doesn’t understand the NFL’s decision-making on fines at all.