Coming off a one-game suspension for repeated violations of the player safety rules regarding blows to the head of defenseless players, Brandon Meriweather vowed to start aiming lower at opposing players to avoid getting fined.
Meriweather said he’ll have to start targeting players’ knees at the risk of ending their careers instead of shots to the upper body of opposing players.
“I guess I’ve just got to take people’s knees out,” Meriweather said, via Michael Phillips of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “That’s the only way. . . . I’d hate to end a guy’s career, you know, over a rule. But I guess it’s better other people than me getting suspended for longer. . . .
“To be honest, man, you’ve just got to go low now. You’ve got to end people’s careers, you know? You’ve got to tear people’s ACLs and mess up people’s knees now. You can’t hit them high no more. You’ve just got to go low.”
According to Tom Pelissero of the USA Today, the league will not levy any further discipline against Meriweather for the comments.
“We are not approaching it as a matter that requires discipline,” league spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an email.
Meriweather was initially suspended for two games before an appeal reduced the suspension to just one game.