The NFL office reviews all plays and issues fines for any player-safety violations and other infractions after each week of play. According to TribLive’s Joe Rutter, Darnell Washington received a fine notice for an illegal crackback in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 3 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“Darnell Washington said he has been fined for an illegal crackback block against the Chargers. He plans to appeal,” Rutter wrote from the locker room after practice today on X.
After sifting through the tape, it is not obvious for which play he was fined. Here are three possible guesses, though none look worthy of being fined.
The fines usually get announced on Saturday, but I guess they are issued earlier in the week. It makes sense, as we saw Derwin James recently suspended for his helmet-to-helmet hit on TE Pat Freiermuth in the same game. That suspension was upheld.
According to the NFL Operations’ accountability page, the first infraction for a blindside block comes with a price tag of $16,883, but Ray Fittipaldo reported on X that the fine was for $6,000. The NFLPA can have the fine reduced if it is a large sum of the player’s paycheck. To my knowledge, Washington has never been fined for any offense before. That fine would be withheld from Washington’s next game check if it’s upheld.
The appeals process goes through one of the league’s appeals officers, Derrick Brooks, Ramon Foster, Kevin Mawae, or Jordy Nelson, who were appointed by the NFL and NFLPA. The cases are randomly assigned, so there is perhaps a chance that former Steelers OL Foster sees the appeal.
All fines are donated to the Professional Athletes Foundation, which helps former players in need. The money also goes to the NFL Foundation to support health and safety of athletes at every level of the sport.
