What seemed to be an emotional overreaction in suspending Bengals safety George Iloka apparently looked different after hearing officer Derrick Brooks slept on it.
The league announced that Brooks overturned Iloka’s one-game suspension, and gave him a $36,464.50 fine instead.
That’s the right call, as his action was more like the commonly fined hits we’ve seen over the course of the year, and less like premeditated acts like Rob Gronkowski‘s elbow smash.
That’s good news for the Bengals, and especially Iloka, who would have lost a $235,000 game check and a $31,250 per-game roster bonus if he had been suspended.
But it’s another hit for a league that looks foolish at times with it’s random interpretations of the rules. Until they have a consistent (and consistently applied) standard, they set themselves up for this kind of embarrassment.