Jets OL Matt Slauson Fined $10k for Ending Brian Cushing’s Season
By Josh Hill
The NFL has levied a $10,000 fine against New York Jets offensive lineman after he allegedly chop blocked Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing during Monday night’s game. Cushing ended up tearing his ACL as a result of the hit and has to have season-ending surgery to repair the ligaments torn. While Slauson is appealing the the fine, Texans fans are outraged that their Super Bowl season has taken a big blow.
Slauson on the other hand, doesn’t think Texans fans have much to be angry at him about. He feels the block was legitimate.
“I’ve heard (from my coaches) that it was a clean block, that’s all I know,” Slauson said Thursday. “If the league wants to tell me differently … I hope I don’t get fined. If I happen to get something, I’ll deal it then.”
Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips doesn’t agree with Slauson’s or Jets head coach Rex Ryan’s assessment of the hit.
“Whether it was legal or not, all that stuff — I think it’s just unnecessary to hit a defensive player when he can’t see you,” Phillips said. Many around the league are echoing Phillips cry, especially defensive players sick and tired of being blasted for hitting players (a.k.a doing their jobs), but not being as equally protected as offensive players.
Packers linebacker and former USC teammate of Cushing’s, Clay Matthews, took to twitter right after the hit to call out the NFL on what he feels is a double standard when it comes to player safety in the NFL. Matthews stated that if the league is serious about safety, both sides of the ball need to be protected. While Slauson maintains his innocence, video replay of the block shows the Jets lineman was intentionally going low on Cushing. Either that or Slauson falls in an interesting way.
That’s Rex Ryan’s defense of the hit. When asked if he thought the hit was dirty, Ryan shrugged it off saying merely that, “I think that’s just one of those unfortunate things.”
Unfortunate or not the fact of the matter remains that the season ending injury to Brian Cushing may be the start of a new safety push in the NFL. The league wouldn’t have levied the fine if they didn’t deem the hit illegal but the question is does their interest in this matter end when they receive a check from Slauson, or will they think about the checks they’ll have to be sending out in twenty years time to Clay Matthews, Brian Cushing and countless other defensive players who seem to fall in-between the cracks when it comes to player safety in the NFL.