JuJu Smith-Schuster, George Illoka Suspended 1 game

[rob_shadows]

I thought it was hilarious when Antonio Brown told JuJu he'd pay his fine in the locker room after and said the hit was karma

[Stevein2012]

2 hours ago, Thomas5737 said:

JuJu launched putting his helmet into the facemask of an unexpected Burfict and celebrated over him. It would have been easy to just legally block him and take him out of the play, he took a shot for the sake of taking a shot and did so outside of the rules. If this was in another game he probably isn't suspended but dirty shots like this (it is dirty because it was illegal and unnecessary and likely to injure) just keep the bad blood escalating and next time it may be Burfict retaliating and getting tossed.

/s Yeah, totally "smashed his face in" lol 

[BlaqOptic]

3 hours ago, Kip Smithers said:

Iloka got suspended? How do you expect the NFL to handle DV punishments when they can’t even handle on field discipline.

NFL I dare you to accept Gronks appeal. Lol I dare you.

The fact that they've heard Smith-Schuster's appeal already in one day and decided but are still at least "hearing" Gronk's is disgusting.

[BAConrad]

The way I look at it, the NFL is basically saying that what Gronk did, and what JuJu/Iloka each did are equally as bad. Which is a total farce. 

Neither Iloka nor JuJu deserve to be suspended. If JuJu doesn't taunt, I'd say he shouldn't have been fined or suspended at all. But given the taunting, I think a small (relative to these guys) fine would have been OK. Something like $20k. Iloka as well, given that his hit was worse than JuJu's only he didn't act like a jerk after. 

I mean, if JuJu would have stood over Burfict, then gave him the People's Elbow (whatever the Rock's signature move was), then sure, suspend him as many games as you did Gronk. But JuJu didn't hit him after the whistle. Or from behind. Not to mention JuJu actually seemed to legitimately feel remorseful afterwards (tbh AB yelling in the background about how it was karma really didn't help). But even so, IMO it looked like after Brown said that, JuJu gave him a cold look and seemed almost mad about that. 

Gronks apology was basically exactly how a teenager apologizes to someone only because he has to and you know the words are just hollow and mean nothing to him. He doesn't even look into the cameras, instead looking up or away while he says it.

Bottom line, these 3 cases are gross examples of the NFL and its total ineptitude in handling player disciples. Only for two different reasons

 

 

[Jakuvious]

Gotta agree with what seems to be the consensus here. Juju is absolutely getting suspended for the taunt. Just a bad look in a game that had a spine injury, to have a guy standing over and taunting a player after a big hit. It's basically a suspension for hurting the image of the league akin to a lot of the off the field suspensions. They won't call it that, but it's what it is. And I'm honestly not even sure I disagree. It looked unpleasant. I don't care for so many of the taunting penalties (tossing a ball, gesturing towards another player, stuff like that) but standing over a guy on the ground has always bothered me a little bit.

Didn't see the Iloka play, can't comment on that.

 

I have to ask, what on earth are the coaches of these two teams doing around these games? Because this isn't a new thing. We're going on a few years of really ugly looking behavior in Cincy/Pittsburgh games. How are the coaches not cracking down on this stuff by now? Because I get that some players just make poor choices in the heat of things. KC's got two pretty high profile ones. But these are entire teams, or at least large chunks of them, that seem to lose themselves two weeks a year. That has to be seen as a leadership failure at some point, right?

[Carmen Cygni]

4 minutes ago, Jakuvious said:

Gotta agree with what seems to be the consensus here. Juju is absolutely getting suspended for the taunt. Just a bad look in a game that had a spine injury, to have a guy standing over and taunting a player after a big hit. It's basically a suspension for hurting the image of the league akin to a lot of the off the field suspensions. They won't call it that, but it's what it is. And I'm honestly not even sure I disagree. It looked unpleasant. I don't care for so many of the taunting penalties (tossing a ball, gesturing towards another player, stuff like that) but standing over a guy on the ground has always bothered me a little bit.

Didn't see the Iloka play, can't comment on that.

 

I have to ask, what on earth are the coaches of these two teams doing around these games? Because this isn't a new thing. We're going on a few years of really ugly looking behavior in Cincy/Pittsburgh games. How are the coaches not cracking down on this stuff by now? Because I get that some players just make poor choices in the heat of things. KC's got two pretty high profile ones. But these are entire teams, or at least large chunks of them, that seem to lose themselves two weeks a year. That has to be seen as a leadership failure at some point, right?

I think the players need to come together at some point and realize that, although they play for different teams, they are essentially on the same side. Meaning, tone down the intentional and dirty play, and understand that's another brother's livelihood on the other end. Obviously there will always be bad blood brewing b/w rivalries, but especially in this day and age where roster fluctuation is so prevalent, a good amount of opposing players end up wearing the same color jerseys at some point. They all need to knock of the BS if they want this sport to continue and have a thriving future.

[CKSteeler]

Without the Shazier situation, there is no way in hell the league suspends either player.

How anyone in the NFL league office could say, hey, we're going to give two guys punishments for things between the whistles as Gronkowski's blatant cheap shot after the whistle to a guy who was, without any doubt, defenseless, si beyond me.

They continue to make themselves into a bigger and bigger joke.

[bigbadbuff23835]

16 minutes ago, CKSteeler said:

Without the Shazier situation, there is no way in hell the league suspends either player.

How anyone in the NFL league office could say, hey, we're going to give two guys punishments for things between the whistles as Gronkowski's blatant cheap shot after the whistle to a guy who was, without any doubt, defenseless, si beyond me.

They continue to make themselves into a bigger and bigger joke.

Agreed on all of this. The NFL is such a poorly run league. The worst of the big 4 IMO, but America loves football, and that gives them a big pass because it’s not like any of us are going to stop watching.

[August4th]

2 minutes ago, bigbadbuff23835 said:

Agreed on all of this. The NFL is such a poorly run league. The worst of the big 4 IMO, but America loves football, and that gives them a big pass because it’s not like any of us are going to stop watching.

BINGO

been thinking this for a few years...people love football but hate the NFL..for a league that cares so much about its PR they somehow always drop the ball on it and come off as amateurs

[Soko]

1 hour ago, Jakuvious said:

That has to be seen as a leadership failure at some point, right?

It’s ironic the two coaches in discussion are Marvin Lewis - probably seen as one of the least disciplined coaches in the league as far as player overview goes - and Mike Tomlin - a guy who is probably viewed as one of the better “leader of men” in the coaching circle. 

I have to assume that not only is there a ton of vitriol towards the opposing team, but they lack respect for one another - unlike the old Ravens-Steelers matchups. Some of the players are going out there wanting to do damage because they genuinely hate the other team and a coach asking them to “take it easy on the enemy” or anything of that nature, may hurt his image in the eyes of some. I don’t doubt that Lewis and Tomlin preach restraint on some level, but as you said, they’ve obviously either failed to coach enough discipline in these instances or failed to take these matters seriously enough.

[Dome]

2 hours ago, BlaqOptic said:

The fact that they've heard Smith-Schuster's appeal already in one day and decided but are still at least "hearing" Gronk's is disgusting.

It's now been decided that Gronks suspension will stand, but agreed. The NFL is a joke in matters like this. It's laughable, but they get away with it because casual fans probably don't care or are wildly misinformed. 

[CKSteeler]

41 minutes ago, Yin-Yang said:

It’s ironic the two coaches in discussion are Marvin Lewis - probably seen as one of the least disciplined coaches in the league as far as player overview goes - and Mike Tomlin - a guy who is probably viewed as one of the better “leader of men” in the coaching circle. 

I have to assume that not only is there a ton of vitriol towards the opposing team, but they lack respect for one another - unlike the old Ravens-Steelers matchups. Some of the players are going out there wanting to do damage because they genuinely hate the other team and a coach asking them to “take it easy on the enemy” or anything of that nature, may hurt his image in the eyes of some. I don’t doubt that Lewis and Tomlin preach restraint on some level, but as you said, they’ve obviously either failed to coach enough discipline in these instances or failed to take these matters seriously enough.

This is just such absolute garbage. Fans aren't tuning out because of physical or violent games. Which is why the NFL keeps putting them on prime time. They're tuning out because of godawful officiating (which we saw in all of its glory last night), a lower quality of product, and off the field drama that isn't at all interesting and which is almost always massively fueled by the league office's incompetence. The NFL just isn't fun anymore. But we have a bunch of people who want to sit here and insist that Juju Smith Schuster laying out Burfict is the cause. That Shazier's injury was just too frightening (even though anyone who has been around football long enough has seen it, and it was the sort of injury that was always scary well before any emphasis on player safety/concussions). Most fans don't even trust that the league is acting in the name of player safety because nothing really reflects that. Reacting to the next day's headlines reeks more of opportunism and an active desire to create controversy. Only, said controversies eventually take a real toll on your fanbase.

What we have are a bunch of media talking heads and hack writers pumping out hot takes that suit their own agendas and sensibilities. And then a bunch of fans online mostly reacting to them.

This is a league office that hands out punishments in a completely incoherent manner. Bottom line. Not a single person can actually show otherwise. They are, as Jerry Jones has accused them of, entirely reactionary. Chasing their own tail. And it breeds one controversy after another. I could, as a fan, live with a change to the game I grew up with if it was at least something honest and earnest. Or, hell, consistent. But we don't get that. By the letter of the rule. And the league defenders be damned, they don't even enforce basic penalties like holding with any consistency anymore. The NFL as a league has taken the worst possible approach over the last decade. It only makes sense if you think they were intentionally trying to court controversy.. I've been arguing this for years, and it only becomes more obvious over time.

[Soko]

@CKSteeler

You quote the right person? 

I didn’t comment on ratings, consistency, or officiating. 

[CKSteeler]

Who the hell knows! It's not personal. It's just not about the coaches or even teams in this instance.

No. I just find blaming the coaches for last night to be kind of absurd. The game wasn't even particularly chippy. We had one instance of Juju laying a hit on Burfict, a player the Steelers loathe and always will (and for good reason) while taunting, and then a later hit from a Bengal most likely in retaliation. Yet both were football plays we see just about every week. The suspensions are purely the result of the Shazier hit earlier in the game which could have happened any week of the season and the media attention. It had nothing to do with Bengals/Steelers which was only really particularly chippy for a series of games at a particular point in time. Burfict is always going to have a target on his back.

I also just disagree that last night's game was bad for the league, outside the Shazier hit which was mostly based on the consequence of the play. Neck/spinal injuries have always been a scary aspect of the game no matter the era. No one was laughing when some guy broke his neck in 1999. Nothing we saw after that point was particularly noteworthy. And, sorry, but an entertaining football game, a playoff game, in 2015 where a number of players left due to injury didn't hurt the league, either. Hard hits that may violate the NFL's arbitrary and, frankly, ridiculous and unevenly enforced set of rules aren't the problem.

[Hunter2_1]

That LeVeon bounce though.......ouch