Bears’ Jon Bostic not fined for hit that drew Jim Schwartz’s ire

AP

Lions coach Jim Schwartz said this week that the NFL is hypocritical if it talks about player safety but doesn’t do anything about the hit that Chicago’s Jon Bostic delivered on Detroit’s Kris Durham.

Well, apparently the NFL is hypocritical, because it didn’t do anything about the hit.

Bostic wasn’t flagged for the hit, which came after Durham recovered on the Bears’ onside kick at the end of Sunday’s game. And now the league office has confirmed that Bostic wasn’t fined, either.

After the Lions beat the Bears, Schwartz said he was shocked the officials didn’t throw a flag.

“I still can’t believe that,” Schwartz said. “We talk a lot about player safety and things like that, and he’s laying prone on the ground, he’s giving himself up, and he takes a helmet right to the back and we don’t get any call there. It’s a little hypocritical to talk about player safety when we allow that to go, allow that to not get called.”

Schwartz won’t be happy to hear that Bostic wasn’t fined.

46 responses to “Bears’ Jon Bostic not fined for hit that drew Jim Schwartz’s ire

  1. The league doesn’t show any kind of consistency.

    Well, I take that back. They consistently find ways to fine the Lions when nothing is warranted (tackles by hair, shoves, etc). They consistently find ways to take touchdowns away from the Lions with rules that they can’t call right on a play by play basis (Calvin Johnson rule). The Lions are consistently having to beat 11 players and a ref or two with a hidden agenda.

    I guess there is a little consistency, my bad.

  2. Anyone remember the days before the wussification of football, when there weren’t articles written about how it’s a surprise there was no fine. Bostic was trying to jar the ball loose on an onside kick, Football is a violent sport, get over it.

  3. Ironically, Rocky McIntosh was fined for a horsecollar tackle that the replay showed wasn’t, in fact, a horsecollar.

    This is why you hear Lions fans complain about the refs and the NFL.

  4. Hypocritical would be fining a player in an instance where the refs didn’t throw a flag. Let’s applaud the NFL for finally NOT fining a guy for playing football.

  5. And Rocky Macintosh is fined for the ‘horse collar’–where at no point did his hand go inside the pads of Hester? Masters of selective discipline strike again!

  6. And Schwartz is a dbag. Coaches and players whining and lobbying for opposing players to be fined is reprehensible and childish. Schwartz and Terrelle Pryor, please sit in timeout and think about what you have done.

  7. Any coach that has Suh on the roster forfeits all right to complain about dirty hits. Glass house, Jim, glass house.

  8. Have to agree with Schwartz. Bostic’s hit was unnecessary, and dangerous. He should have been flagged and fined for it.

    –Chicago Bears Fan

  9. He may have been “giving himself up” by laying on the ground covering the ball but if the whistle hadn’t blown, and it hadn’t, he is in play and could change his mind and run. Bostic didn’t spear him with his helmet and the contact was a lame but no other choice effort to knock the ball out.
    There is a significant difference between that play and let’s say kicking a guy in the groin or stomping him well after the whistle.

  10. The Lions may be undisciplined and have dirty hits of their own and Schwartz may be too whiny or smug sometimes but that doesn’t mean he is wrong or that the league isn’t inconsistent here. If a player is on the ground with the ball, covering up, giving himself up and defenseless and a simple touch ends the play, why is it ok to go in to his back, helmet first? How is that not unnecessary roughness? How does the non-call advance the concern about player safety? Selective application of rules = inconsistency.

  11. Packer vs Lions no matter who wins the loser will have a million reasons why they lost or ” we gave it to them”

  12. We all know that if Ndamukong Suh was barreling down on this play he would have gotten a bill from the league. And that, folks, is the definition of hypocrisy.

  13. So because the Lions draw flags more often than other teams, or because the coach rubs people the wrong way, it’s okay for one of their players to take an unnecessary shot in the lower back as he lay in a defenseless position?

    Some of the posters here disgust me.

  14. The Bears have not made a name for them self as a DIRTY team so the league is not watching every play they run. NOW the Lions have a scumb bag for a coach and a LOW LIFE SCUMB BAG NAMED SUH on that team so the league has to spend half of Sunday night watching that whole team. Lions fans should tell the team to keep it clean.

  15. Suh is flagged and fined for shoving Cutler while running. Jon Bostic hits a defenseless player in the back after he’d clearly given himself up and no flag or fine? Yeah that’s inconsistent. For those who are going say he could have jarred it loose, no he couldn’t. As soon as a played on the ground is touched by an opponent he is down by contact, any contact would have to precede a fumble so he would be down before the ball came loose. As for getting up and running DBs do this all the time on late game interceptions and QBs when they slide. No one in the history of the NFL has ever fallen on an onside kick and got up and returned it for a TD so that kills that weak argument. Should have been an inconsequential fine and if the NFL really cares about defenseless players a fine too.

  16. juliuspeppersandonions says:
    Oct 5, 2013 8:32 AM
    Schwartz is the biggest cry baby in the league. Horrible coach and just a bagel to boot.
    —————————————–
    Assuming your’re a Bears fan. U mad Lions won,yes?

  17. Someone mentioned that Bostic was trying to “jar the ball loose”. How is that going to happen when the player scooped up the football and is laying on top of it and the play is DEAD!!! He speared Durham in the back under the guise of trying to make a play but there was no way that it could have resulted in anything beneficial for his team. Just an unnecessary cheap shot

  18. I guess Lions fans are going to hang on to this non call as the highlight of their season? I have never heard so much talk for a regular season week 4 game by a team before in the history of the NFL. but I guess you will have to have something to look back on when the season is over and you and your team are home sitting on the couch watching the BEARS in the playoffs.

  19. Also, guys: The Bears game has been over for almost a week now, and Lions fans, players, and coaches are still running their mouths. Don’t they realize they won the game? Act like you have won before.

    The Lions have the most ignorant fan base in the NFL with the exception of maybe the Packers and Patriots even coming close. Why can’t this admittedly disgusting city get a real football team? I am embarrassed to be a Lions fan.

    Maybe the League/refs has/have a better idea of the rules than you?

  20. Had that been Suh who made that hit, there would have been a suspension as well as a fine……..

  21. That’s a terrible decision by the league. And after Goodell’s 100,000 word email about player safety, it looks even more inconsistent.

  22. This hit by Bostic makes him a repeat offender, and the league does nothing about it. But Suh (also a repeat offender) gets a $100,000 fine for a low block, which offensive linemen do all the time without so much as a flag (and that was admitted by a former offensive lineman on national television). I’m completely flabbergasted. Not only should Bostic have been fined, but Major Wright should have been fined for his hit on Megatron as well. But then again, both plays were against the Lions, so they’ll let it slide. (*rolling my eyes*)

  23. Meanwhile, Suh was just suspended 6 games for making physical contact with Kyle Long.

    Breaking news: Suh fined $15,000 for sneezing in the general direction of the Bears’ sideline. Suh questioned the fine given that the sneeze occurred this past Wednesday, long after the Bears had returned to Chicago. He was immediately suspended an additional 6 games.

  24. For metalhead65 and eightandeightlions:

    Your fury is misplaced. If it weren’t for stories posted nearly a week after the game there would be no running commentary about an otherwise insignificant play. From city to city, throughout the league, there’s a whole variety of fans, some smarter than others, some more articulate than others, and no city is collectively dumber or smarter than another. PFT posters are not necessarily representative of the intelligence of any given city’s fan base but some individuals here sure are able to generate a lot of anger in some others over what is supposed to be simply another form of entertainment. Side note 1. The metropolitan Detroit area is as affluent, entertaining and enjoyable as just about any region in the country. Side note 2: It is very possible that neither the Bears nor the Lions will make the playoffs this year. Neither of you wear bitter very well.

  25. It wasn’t illegal so that’s why he wasn’t fined. Schwartz is a crybaby & should be forced to change his name for bringing shame to the movie Spaceballs

  26. “Had that been Suh who made that hit, there would have been a suspension as well as a fine…”

    And Kris Durham would wonder why his own teammate speared him.

    I’m a Bears fan who feels the hit should have been flagged and fined.

    As for Bostic, he is not a repeat offender, as he never deserved punishment the first time…That one was a clean hit.

    So maybe things balanced out.

  27. @larryboodry

    I respect your opinion and thought on this. My concern is, shouldn’t the rules apply to all even if it’s a first time offender? Suh does have a shaded past but do 2 wrongs make a right? I look forward to your reply.

  28. @Larry
    these Lions fans are with that team and Suh all the way ” wrong or right” they dont care if Suh kick a player low or stomp on a guy from a standing position. my point is the Bears have to play the game thats being played. and thats what Bostic was doing and Im glad he got away with it. besides look who’s talking….
    a coach that started a fight with another coach on the field after a game.

  29. @chi01town you have the biggest mouth on here always spewing your Lions hate dude. Your an internet tough guy. You wouldn’t say anything to Suh in person.

  30. As I recall, the FOX announcers said that if the ball had come out on the hit, it would not have been a fumble. The play was over as soon as contact was made and a dead ball isn’t a fumble.

    And the truth is, if Suh had done something like this to one of the Bears, this website would have posted the video while calling for him to be banned from the league. The NFL aren’t the only ones who are inconsistent.

    Both teams have moved on and are focusing on this week, but I don’t mind pointing out when Goodell is saying one thing and doing something else. I also don’t mind pointing out when he doesn’t apply things the same way across the board. That’s what this is about.

    In general … the rule book is too complicated! It’s like we all have to become lawyers to watch a football game.

  31. metalhead65 says: Oct 5, 2013 11:38 AM

    I guess Lions fans are going to hang on to this non call as the highlight of their season? I have never heard so much talk for a regular season week 4 game by a team before in the history of the NFL. but I guess you will have to have something to look back on when the season is over and you and your team are home sitting on the couch watching the BEARS in the playoffs.
    —————————————————–
    Are you guys finally going to make the playoffs? Have you had enough of watching the Packers Lions and Vikings all make the playoffs the last two years and all you guys have left are ifs and buts?

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