During last week’s Cardinals-Rams game, St. Louis cornerback Janoris Jenkins was about to intercept a pass when Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald grabbed Jenkins by the facemask to stop him. It worked, but it cost Fitzgerald.
The NFL fined Fitzgerald $7,875 for the penalty, which is the usual fine for facemasking.
For Fitzgerald, who has an eight-year, $120 million contract, it’s probably safe to say that a fine representing 0.007 percent of that amount is not going to dissuade him from doing the same thing if faced with the same circumstance again: If Fitzgerald has to grab somebody’s facemask to stop an interception, he’ll gladly do it, especially when all it’s going to cost him is, to him, pocket change.