After former Vikings receiver Randy Moss was fined $10,000 for pretending to moon the crowd at Lambeau Field, he brushed off the amount and suggested, “Next time I might shake my d--k.”
As it turns out, it may not have cost him much more than $10,000.
Nine seasons later, Patriots cornerback Logan Ryan was fined a mere $10,000 for grabbing his crotch during an end-zone dive at the end of a 79-yard interception return for a touchdown. Ryan wasn’t flagged for the offense.
“I don’t want to get into too much detail talking about that, but there are certain things that come over the season that we have to handle in-house, and I think that’s one of those things,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said earlier this week regarding the incident, via the Boston Herald. “He’s a great kid, and he’s been nothing but respectful since he’s gotten here. That’s something we just have to handle in-house.”
It’s unclear how it will be handled in house, but it always was clear the league would get involved. And while there’s nothing trivial about a $10,000 fine (except for Randy Moss), it seemed at the time like conduct that should have resulted in a stiffer more severe penalty.
The move was an apparent homage to Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch, who capped his Richter scale needle-moving playoff touchdown run in early 2011 by making the same move. He wasn’t fined for the gesture, probably because another player was in the path of the broadcast camera when it happened.
Or maybe Ryan was simply paying tribute to Michael Jackson, a day after the Ohio State band did.