John Clayton Talks Ed Reed, NFL
While Ravens star safety Ed Reed is happy that his one-game suspension for his hit on the Steelers' Emmanuel Sanders was overturned on appeal, he is still bothered about having to pay the $50,000 fine. Reed, concerned that he might now be viewed as a dirty player, spoke about it with The Baltimore Sun's Aaron Wilson.
"It really needs to be discussed for a fine to come down like that so harshly for that hit," Reed said. "Over my career and for them to go back to 2010 for me scratching Drew Brees on the head, even the one that happened in Week 2 with Michael Vick, c'mon, man. I'm going for the ball. It's a contact sport. It's a lot that needs to be done with it, man. I'm just glad I can play with my teammates. I'm not happy with the $50 grand, but what can you do?" Reed explained.
ESPN's John Clayton told The Vinny and Rob Show today that by the letter of the law, something had to happen. "It was a helmet hit and that can't be questioned and there was a penalty on it. So because of the fact that you go by the letter of the law, he would have to get something more than $21,000 because he got fined $21,000 for the Deion Branch hit. Technically by rule, it is part of the collective bargaining agreement; he now has three in three years and is now a repeat offender."
Clayton went into more specifics on Ed Reed. "We all know Ed is struggling to tackle and arm tackle people because he has a torn labrum and he's older. So there's a limited number of ways that he can at least come up and make an open field tackle like that. It would be nice if he would launch a little bit lower. It would be nice if Emmanuel Sanders didn't duck his head, but $50,000 is still a little excessive but it's a lot better than losing a game and it's a lot better than losing $423,000."
Clayton looks forward to Thanksgiving football and also talked about other news happening around the NFL.
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