In the wake of last Sunday’s incident between 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh and Lions coach Jim Schwartz, the NFL has circulated a memo explaining to teams the appropriate standards for post-game conduct, according to Charley Casserly of CBS.
The memo, portions of which were quoted by CBS, seems to be short on specifics and long on general ideals and platitudes, will be a precursor to fines if a similar incident occurs in the future. Per Casserly, fines would have been issued to Harbaugh and Schwartz if the memo had been sent before last Sunday’s game.
But why does sending out a piece of paper containing a bunch of common-sense principles put two supposedly smart men on notice of what is, and isn’t, acceptable conduct? It appears to be the NFL’s clumsy way of addressing rampant criticism of the decision not to fine the two coaches, by taking the position that fines will be imposed for similar conduct in the future, even though fines weren’t imposed for the incident that happened seven days ago.