We still don’t know what the NFL will do to umpire Roy Ellison for his part in a confrontation with Bills defensive end Jerry Hughes, but we now know that Hughes got a heavy fine.
Hughes was fined $53,482 for screaming at and threatening Ellison.
During the confrontation, Hughes could be heard saying that Ellison called him a “b---h,” and the NFL placed Ellison on administrative leave. The NFL Referees Association stood by Ellison and said he should not be sanctioned. But Ellison has a history of discipline for such matters, including serving a one-game suspension for use of inappropriate language toward a player.
For his part, Hughes is lucky to get a fine that works out to only about one-seventh of his weekly pay of $374,000. Hughes easily could have been suspended, and the fact that he wasn’t raises the question of whether the NFL believes Ellison said something that gave Hughes a good reason to be mad.