NFL fines Terence Garvin $25,000 for hit on Kevin Huber

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 18, 2013, 5:35 PM EST
AP

Steelers linebacker Terence Garvin has been hit hard by the league office for his hard hit on Bengals punter Kevin Huber.

The NFL has fined Garvin $25,000, WLWT’s Artrell Hawkins reports.

Garvin was not flagged on the play, but the NFL said afterward that he should have been. Punters and kickers are considered defenseless players, meaning they can’t be hit in the head or neck area. Garvin’s helmet struck Huber’s chin. Huber suffered a broken jaw and a cracked vertebrae on the hit, ending his season.

Garvin told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he plans to reach out to Huber, but he added that he doesn’t think he can change the way he plays on special teams just because the NFL is going to discipline him.

“When you’re playing football, you don’t think of all that, you’re thinking about doing what you’ve got to do to make a play,” Garvin said. “I wasn’t out there trying to be vicious or anything like that, I’m just trying to do what I can to make a play and help my team out. When you’re in a game, you’re trying to make a play, that’s all I’m thinking about.”

The $25,000 fine shows the NFL also wants Garvin to think about lowering his target.

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32 responses to “NFL fines Terence Garvin $25,000 for hit on Kevin Huber”

  3. His effort to make a play should have cost his team a touchdown on the return and a minus 15 yards from the point of the foul.
    How that wasn’t called is ridiculous. Punter or not, he blasted an unsuspecting and unprotected player high.

  5. Should have been suspended to. Even with the Steelers special teams fiascos with this guy and Tomlin amazing the flags were superglued in the refs pockets. On a brighter note the Steelers are 6-8

  8. Defenseless receivers and punters is a joke!!! They have a helmet on just like everyone else. Goddell is ruining the nfl. 25k is probably more than the young man makes each week!!

  9. Maybe punters and kickers should have to wear special jerseys to indicate that they are defenseless at all times.

  10. At least they explained the “defenceless player” phrase a bit better.

    So, you’re not allowed to target a punter, with his teeny weeny helmet and facebar, in his head.

    That makes sense.

    So does the fine – far more than any of the others I’ve seen dished out this season. I wish the NFL would concentrate on stuff like this, rather than protect QB’s from getting booboos on their tushies.

  11. Forget the “defenseless player” aspect of this. The hit where the defender intentionally hits the other player with the crown of his helmet under the face mask of the other player needs to be illegal in all circumstances.

    For all of the arm chair tough guys on here, I ask you how you would feel if someone swung a 15 pound weight underhanded and smashed it into the bottom of your jaw. You can literally change someone’s life with a hit like that.

    The game is plenty physical without nonsense like Garvin’s hit involved. This isn’t rollerball, for god’s sake. We’re human beings.

  12. Steelers love to play dirty. Joey Porter was the worst, Hines not far behind. Never forget the time Todd Heap could barely stand for a spike the ball play and Porter decked him as hard as he could. They have always played dirty and always will it seems….
    Now Huber has to eat thru a straw for weeks and has a broken neck and he doesnt want to change the way he plays – no reduction deserved there!

  13. Terence Garvin has learned a valuable lesson today.

    Don’t hit the player in the head, you might break their neck and get a big fine. Hit them in the knee, you might end their career, but your wallet stays full.

    I wonder how many players will learn this lesson before the NFL changes things.

  16. Watch the play from the endzone camera angle. Garvin is trailing across the field and runs nearly 20 yards looking at Huber, winds his arms back as he approaches, and unloads into Huber with his helmet under the face mask area, moving up to cause as much damage as possible (intent or not). Doing what you have to do to make a play? Seriously dude!? He’s a punter… you’re a linebacker! You could have blown a gust of wind in his direction and he would have been out of the play. $25,000 evidently isn’t enough if he othinks he has to make a play on a punter like that. By the way, Ed Hoculi, the head referee and the umpire were 15-20 yards behind the play when the illegal block happens. They were looking in that direction. They have responsibility to watch the punter on that play. How they don’t see it and not throw the flag is suspect in my opinion.

  17. Scenario 1: Break a punter’s jaw and vertebrae with a vicious hit and you’ll be fined $25k for an illegal hit.

    Scenario 2: Break the jaw and vertebrae of any other player on the return coverage team with the same vicious hit and you’ll be fined $0 because it’s a legal.

    Where is the consistency? Either both hits should be illegal or neither hit should be illegal.

  18. He should have been fined more. And his attitude — that he’s not going to change the way he plays — is disconcerting, to say the least.

  19. If the punter is defenseless, make him leave the field after the punt, he can’t attempt to make a tackle. The block seemed vicious, but they are all football players, the game is violent.

  20. They were running at full speed, Garvin’s a rookie, and in real-time it’s unlikely he saw anything but a Bengal uniform in position to make the tackle. But he could have knocked the guy in that uniform out of the play without blowing him up.

    The league could have just fined Garvin like they fine everyone for any and all reasons. But as usual, the suits knee-jerked. They over-fined a rookie who had no prior issues. And they issued a lot of idiotic statements about guys going after the ball carrier being defenseless.

    Just another day in Goodell’s World.

  22. Garvin needs to send the big box of chocolate to the League offices along with his thank you card because they gave him a bigtime holiday gift.

  26. The money means little. His fellow teammates will likely chip in and pony up most of it. It would have been more fitting if they made him wear a neck brace and eat through a straw for the next two months, the way Huber will have to.

  27. I think the fact that he hit a punter is irrelevant. This was an extremely dirty, unnecessary hit, no matter who was on the receiving end. 25k fine sounds about right to me, wouldn’t mind him getting a game too. This all from a die hard Steeler btw.

  29. I’m a Bengal fan and I have no issue with that block. Sure, it was the punter and perhaps you could go after someone your own size, but, he still was in the middle of the play and was actually near Brown when he got hit.

  30. It was a sucker hit. The Steelers are famously dirty when it comes to hits. Huber wasn’t even close to making a play. A forearm would have been good enough.

  32. I enjoyed the play but admittedly it was a bit over the top. There’s only one way to eliminate stuff like that—–more Officials on the field, immediate Ejections and Suspensions(like that will happen).

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