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Bills' Cody Ford fined for questionable penalty, but Jadeveon Clowney escapes punishment for helmet hit

Liz Roscher
·Staff writer
Updated

Are you ready for a tale of two fines?

Here’s the first one: Buffalo Bills offensive tackle Cody Ford was fined $28,075 on Saturday for an illegal blindside block that occurred in last week’s wild-card game against the Houston Texans. The call itself was questionable, but the result was heartbreaking: The penalty took the Bills out of field goal range during overtime, essentially costing them the game.

Bills Mafia started a GoFundMe to help pay for Ford’s fine since they don’t think it should exist. Ford said on Twitter that he’ll give that money to charity.

The second fine in this tale doesn’t actually exist. The NFL declined to fine Seattle Seahawks defensive end Jadeveon Clowney for his helmet-to-helmet hit on Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz during their wild-card matchup last Sunday.

The hit came on the ninth play of the game, and shortly after Wentz self-reported his concussion symptoms and was removed from the game. He did not return, and backup QB Josh McCown was pressed into service. The Eagles lost 17-9.

Here’s what that play looked like.

Clowney’s hit on Wentz wasn’t flagged on the field, and after the game the officials stood by their decision and said that Wentz, who was diving to the ground, didn’t give himself up. However, Wentz was actually denied a first down back in Week 2 because the officials said that he’d given himself up by — you guessed it! — diving to the ground.

You would think that the NFL would choose one direction for its officiating, either to over-penalize or under-penalize. As you can see here they’ve somehow chosen both, so congratulations to the NFL and its officials for forging a new path in sports incompetence.

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