Newz Forum: FOOTBALL: Jags' Darius fined $75K for hit; no suspension

NEW YORK -- Jacksonville safety Donovin Darius was fined $75,000 by the NFL on Tuesday for a hit across the neck of Green Bay's Robert Ferguson that left the wide receiver temporarily paralyzed.

Darius, who was ejected from the game, wasn't suspended because league disciplinarian Gene Washington noted that this was the first time he had been fined for a violation.

The hit came in the fourth quarter of Jacksonville's 28-25 win over the Packers.

Ferguson caught a pass over the middle, and Darius hit him across the helmet and neck with a forearm. Ferguson lay on the ground and was taken off the field, regaining feeling in his legs later, after he was hospitalized. He remained in the hospital Sunday and Monday nights. ESPN.com's John Clayton reports Ferguson was released from the hospital Tuesday afternoon. He is officially listed as out for Friday's game against Minnesota with head and neck injuries.

Darius said in a statement that he spoke with Ferguson on Monday in the hospital.

"We had a good conversation in which he told me he has no hard feelings," Darius said. "We agreed that it was a part of the game. The most important thing is that Robert is OK."

Darius, whose annual salary is more than $4 million a season, was ejected from the game by referee Ed Hochuli.

"You violently and unnecessarily struck your opponent in the neck and head area with your forearm," Washington said in his letter to Darius.

Packers quarterback Brett Favre said he expected a heavy fine.

"I don't know him personally. He seems like a good guy and it's an unfortunate hit," Favre said. "And his comments were he was going for the ball. Maybe he was. Maybe his sole intention was to knock the ball out, but it just didn't seem like it.

"You'd hate to think that you'd ruin a guy's career, and Fergie, by all accounts, will come back from it. But mentally will he be the same? I don't know," he said.

source

ESPN

[Edited on 12/21/2004 by Gibbs Baby!!!]

Ming the Meciless wonders if there has been any hint of criminal charges against Darius.

Just because it is a game, and a violent game at that, does not give him or anyonme else a license to intentionally assault another player in that fashion.

For those who saw it, this was no inadvertent violent collision. From where Ming sat (at home) it looked as intentional and flagrant as you can get. The fine is huge - but Ming proclaims that a fine should not be the end of this.

When I saw the replay, I thought it looked unintentional. He looks as if he's going for the ball. But, as Ditka said on Monday night, there's only one person who really knows whether it was intentional or not.

Yesssss, Gibbs, don't stop there; continue. And that "one" is the ONE. Yes, it is I - It is Ming. Even Ditka, one of your own kind, has admitted to it!

Yeah... Looks like he's going for the ball here...

OK, I should defend what I'm saying here. From the replay that I saw (and I only saw it one time), Darius had his eyes on the ball the whole time, and it appears that he was bringing his arm forward to swat at it.

If he had been intentionally going for his head, he would have been sizing him up during the approach just prior to the collision, similar to the hit that Josh Parry put on Shaun Springs just a week earlier. Of course, that was a good hit by Parry, springs even said so himself. But, Parry intended to hit him as hard as he did, just didn't intend to knock Springs out.

I don't belive that modern NFL players intend to knoch each other out often, if at all. And certinly not when the opposing team is from the other conference, there is no tradition or rivalry among these teams.

That leaves it as just a very stupid play on the part of Darius. If his arm would have been lower and hit Ferguson in the trunk, we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

But, I would argue that he should be suspended. Just because youdon't use your head in a play, doesn't give you amnesty.